
Qass_^_ 

Book. 



STUDIES IN 
THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 



BY THE SAME A UTHOR. 

THE GREAT DIDACTIC OF 
COMENIUS 

Translated into English and 
edited with biographical, histori- 
cal, and critical introductions. 

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In Preparation 

AN INTRODUCTION 

TO EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

A. & C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON. 



STUDIES 



IN THE 



TEACHING OF HISTORY 



M. W. KEATINGE, M.A. 

READER IN EDUCATION IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD 



LONDON 
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 

i 9 i o 



II 16 






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PREFACE 

The following pages are concerned with the teaching of 
boys and girls in the middle forms of secondary schools, 
and even for this stage deal with only a small number 
of the numerous problems presented by the teaching of 
history. They aim at bringing into strong relief a few 
fundamental positions, and make no claim to be an ex- 
haustive treatment of the subject. If, therefore, certain 
methods and principles of proved value are not men- 
tioned, it must not be concluded that they have been 
either overlooked or undervalued. 

My thanks for valuable advice are due to my colleague 
Miss A. J. Cooper, to Mr. J. Wells, Fellow and Tutor of 
Wadham College, to Mr. J. B. Baker, Tutor to the Non- 
Collegiate Students, and to Mr. E. Barker, Fellow and 
Tutor of St. John's College. It must not be assumed 
that they are necessarily in agreement with my views. 
I have also to acknowledge the kindness of Prof. 
Foster Watson, who allowed me to see the proof-sheets 
of his book, The Beginnings of the Teaching of Modern 
Subjects in England, and of Messrs. A. &. C. Black in 
permitting me to use extracts from their publication, 
English History Illustrated from Original Sources, 

M. W. KEATINGE. 

Oxford, 

October 1909. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 



PAGE 

The Problems of Method and of Value . . i 



CHAPTER II 

Scientific Method in History and the Problems 

of the School 20 

CHAPTER III 

Contemporary Documents as a Basis of Method . 36 

CHAPTER IV 

Contemporary Documents as Atmosphere . . 96 

CHAPTER V 

Method and Moral Training 105 

CHAPTER VI 
On Concrete Illustration 120 



viii TEACHING OF HISTORY 



CHAPTER VII 

PAGE 

The Organisation of History Teaching . .151 



CHAPTER VIII 

History and the Examination System . . .168 

CHAPTER IX 
History and Poetry 189 



CHAPTER X 



y 



Some Problems and Devices of Class-Room Practice 2 1 3 

CHAPTER XI 

The Teacher of History 222 

INDEX 231 



STUDIES IN THE TEACHING 
OF HISTORY 

CHAPTER I 

THE PROBLEMS OF METHOD AND OF VALUE 

THOSE who write at large on Education seldom realise 
that the branches of knowledge commonly taught in 
schools vary greatly in the ease with which they lend 
themselves to manipulation. Indeed, this aspect of 
school studies does not interest them. Modes of 
handling a subject seem almost superfluous if that 
subject is evidently a good one. To the man who 
feels that there is a message of some kind to deliver to 
the younger generation, that there are departments of 
knowledge whose content is matter of vital import for 
the understanding of human character and of human 
society, the delay caused by discussions upon method is 
apt to be most irksome. " My subject," the historian will 
say, " is of acknowledged value. No one can be ignorant 
of it without grave injury to his social or commercial or 
religious relations. Let us force it into the curriculum 
at any cost and trust to fortune and to common sense 
that some method of handling it will be found." 

Now fortune is a dependable ally only when steps 



2 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

have been taken to succeed without her aid, and the 
common sense of teachers, while it has dimly felt the 
problem, has tended to exclude history from the school 
precincts rather than to establish methods for its treat- 
ment. If for generation after generation schoolmasters 
have virtually refused to recognise the importance of 
history, the reason probably is that it has appeared too 
vast and untrodden a domain to venture upon without 
long consideration, and as the turmoil of a schoolmaster's 
life leaves no leisure for consideration even of a scanty 
kind, the old subjects hold the field. And they do 
so largely because they lend themselves to teaching, 
because as instruments for making boys think and work 
they are difficult to spoil or to render wholly useless. 

What are the elements necessary in a subject which 
is to lend itself to manipulation ? It is easy to sketch 
in the qualifications. In the main they are four in 
number. The apparatus must be inexpensive and 
readily procured ; it must be easy to see what is the 
teacher's work on the one hand and the boy's work on 
the other ; there must be a facility for setting home 
work that shall be different in kind from the work done 
in class, and these exercises must be fairly mechanical 
(for too much refined judgment must not be expected 
from the average boy) ; it must be possible to attain 
to some generalisations, abstractions, or rules which 
can be applied to fresh matter. Indeed, it is upon the 
presence of this latter element that most of the others 
depend. 

The older subjects fulfil these conditions well. Given 
a plain text of Caesar's Gallic War, a Latin Grammar 
and a dictionary, the boy can be set a great variety of 
work. The materials are not costly, each page provides 



METHOD AND VALUE 3 

a number of problems to be solved and the attack upon 
these and the unravelling of the meaning is a genuine 
preparation for the lesson which is to follow. The work 
of the teacher in testing preparation and in aiding inter- 
pretation is easily discerned. Syntactical generalisations 
in abundance can be derived from instances in the 
text, and the application of these in retranslation 
passages and composition is a genuine application 
exercise. Again in such a subject as arithmetic 
the conditions are all fulfilled. Definite generalisa- 
tions or rules can be reached : " Invert the divisor 
and multiply." These can be applied to an in- 
definite number of examples or problems, and the boy's 
part of working examples can readily be distinguished 
from the teacher's part of developing arithmetical 
processes. Finally, in both cases the boy can be given 
a large amount of work to do apart from the teacher, or 
in other words the teacher need not be teaching all the 
time — an important consideration for a man who has a 
full teaching week. 

When we turn to history we find the conditions very 
badly fulfilled. It is difficult to devise preparation for 
the boy other than the learning from a text-book of the 
facts of the lesson that is to be given or the revising of the 
facts of a lesson that has been given. In school work it is 
not always possible to arrive at historical generalisations 
and apply them to fresh matter. In other words, apart 
from essay-writing, of which with middle-school boys it 
is not easy to vary the form, exercises are difficult to 
find. It needs all the devices of a practised schoolmaster 
to make the class contribute much to the development 
of the lesson. The limits of change appear to be the 
short lecture, the lecture interspersed with questions, the 



v 



4 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

expansion of the text-book, the occasional setting of 
problems, the written answer of fact and the essay ; 
while the latter exacts much time from the master who 
looks it over. In this subject more than in any other 
it seems as if the maximum of work were demanded 
from the teacher and the minimum from the pupil. 
The old relations are reversed ; the teacher prepares his 
lessons and the pupil hears them. 

Now a subject to the development of which the pupil 
is not himself always contributing soon ceases to excite 
his interest. Experience shows that the best lectures, 
although at first listened to with respect, engender list- 
lessness and inattention as term advances ; and yet 
lecturing in some modified form is the first method that 
suggests itself in history teaching. Thus as far as its 
form is concerned, history appears to be a bad school 
subject, and if its content were unimportant, it might 
well be left on one side as too exacting for practical 
purposes. If, however, it can be shown that the content 
of history is of value for educational ends it will be 
worth while to spend some pains upon it. If, further, 
it can be shown that for educational purposes no 
other complex of ideas is of such real importance, 
no trouble will be too great, if only we can succeed 
in getting into order this somewhat unmanageable 
subject. 

It is not easy to make a brief statement of the 
advantages to be derived from the study of history, 
for, indeed, their number is overwhelming. Without 
some acquaintance with origins no man can under- 
stand the civilisation into which he is born, and not 
understanding it he will take no interest in its prob- 
lems. His social and political vision will be dim 



METHOD AND VALUE 5 

and uncertain, his horizon will not extend beyond 
his own immediate needs. Unlike the sufferer from 
cataract the mentally blind can find no surgeon to cure 
him by a speedy operation, for his ignorance begets 
prejudices whose growth is proportional to the efforts to 
heal him. Lack of interest in human factors is a serious 
deficiency, and its seriousness is especially felt in the 
modern self-conscious democracy. The individual has 
not only to realise that problems exist ; he is asked in 
addition to have definite views upon them, and the 
definiteness required is that which arises out of know- 
ledge rather than that born of ignorance. The voter of 
the present day is asked to come to a decision upon 
matters of foreign and home politics. He is expected 
to have views upon social matters, and to act upon them 
at the polling booth ; and he will criticise the report of 
the Poor Law Commission. He may belong to a 
religious community, or he may not ; in either case he 
has his share in making legislation that decides the 
relation between the State and the Churches. He is 
not surprised if asked to choose between Free Trade 
and Protection, and is in no way deterred from doing so 
by his ignorance of both. He will decide that more 
Dreadnoughts are necessary, or fewer, as the case may 
be, hoping to find out at a later date what exactly a 
Dreadnought is and its importance to his country. He 
swells with pride at our position in India, and criticises 
the action of the Viceroy or the attitude of the Home 
Government from the lofty standpoint of the voter who 
ultimately controls both. 

And yet how many of the ordinary citizens of this 
country, men, let us say, prospering in business or 
professional life, have either acquired at school or 



6 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

received the stimulus which would lead them later on to 
acquire for themselves the knowledge that is required 
for sound judgment in these matters ? If the relations 
between this country and others is in question, how 
many adults have a sound understanding of the political 
factors in Europe and the manner in which they arose ? 
How many could even give an account of the causes 
which led up to the war of 1870-71 ? In home politics 
how many of the people who look upon the Irish as a 
race of irreconcilables perpetually occupied in making 
irrational demands have the slightest acquaintance with 
Irish history or with the genesis of the Irish character 
and conditions? How many have even a fair acquaintance 
with the history of the working classes between the reign 
of Edward I. and the present day, or of the separation 
of the Anglican Church from Rome and the growth of 
Nonconformity, or of the various attempts made to aid 
trade by restricting it from the fourteenth century to the 
present day, or of the development of the navy from 
Henry VIII. onwards? How many could give even a 
slight sketch of the history of India, of the diverse races 
to be found there and of the peculiar political problems 
that arise out of this diversity ? 

A very slight acquaintance with men in different 
stations of life shows that in spite of the increased 
attention paid to history in schools during the last 
decade (for it is apparently only those who write to the 
daily papers on matters of education who can venture 
to neglect the changes that have taken place in schools 
since their own school-days), a lamentable ignorance is 
everywhere to be found. Men who would be ashamed 
of mistakes in classical scholarship, or of mathematical 
inaccuracy, will readily confess their ignorance as 



METHOD AND VALUE 7 

regards the history of an institution as well as their 
indifference to it. In many societies to be ill-read in 
the cricket or football news may be a source of real 
discomfiture, to be ill-informed as to the history of a 
movement which is of vital importance to the com- 
munity need not cause anxiety to any one. 

It is precisely in respect of the type of historical 
information above alluded to — information of an almost 
crudely utilitarian kind — that we might have expected 
to find a widely-diffused sense of its value. It is on this 
aspect of history-values that it is wise to lay stress when 
appealing to the common sense of the average citizen, 
and if we receive an unsympathetic hearing it is perhaps 
useless to display the other values of our subject. Yet 
it is as an introduction to the world of human nature 
that history is chiefly to be prized. If stress is laid on 
the biographical side, history is a panorama of character 
in action in every conceivable situation, it widens in- 
definitely the circle of our acquaintances, it provides 
abundant material for the analysis of motive, it gives 
opportunity for cultivating restraint in the admiration 
of pleasant personalities and chanty in the judgment of 
unpleasant ones. By bringing the learner into con- 
tact with civilisations and societies unlike his own it; 
lessens race and class prejudice. In its chronological 
aspect it introduces us to the gradual development of 
civilisation in time. In all these and in other directions 
the value of history is difficult to overrate, and impossible 
to express in a few words. With no subject does the 
teacher stand in closer connection, since it is he who 
should pass on to the younger generation the sacred 
flame from previous ages. The State, when it passes on 
the material possessions of one generation to the next, 



8 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

claims as its due a substantia] death-duty, the price of 
the security that it affords to this transmission of personal 
rights. Similarly the teacher has on the State no 
stronger claim than this, that he hands on to the young 
the possession of their fathers' hard- won experience, and 
by the integrity of his presentation ensures the continuity 
of historical interest. 

Writers on education since the Renaissance (quoting 
Cicero in support of their views) have held opinions 
which agree closely with those expressed above. In his 
Essay, De Ingenuis Moribus, written in 1392 for the son 
of Francesco Carrara, the lord of Padua, Vergerius says : 
" Among liberal studies I accord the first place to 
history, on grounds both of its attractiveness and its 
utility. History gives us the concrete examples of the 
precepts inculcated by philosophy." l Lionardo D'Arezzo 
expresses himself similarly in 1405 : " First among such 
studies I place history, a subject which must not, on any 
account, be neglected by one who aspires to true cultiva- 
tion. For it is our duty to understand the origins of 
our history and its development." 2 In 1450 vEneas 
Sylvius (Pope Pius II.), after recommending the study 
of Livy, Sallust, Quintus Curtius, Valerius Maximus, 
and Arrian (in a translation), together with portions of 
the Old and New Testament, e.g. parts of Genesis, 
Kings, Maccabees, Judith, Esdras, and Esther ; and of 
the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles (advice that is 
rather unexpected as coming from a Pope), adds : " It is 
most important to be thoroughly versed in the works of 
the chief historians, and from their study learn practical 
wisdom in affairs. But I would add here a most serious 

1 Woodward, Vittori7io Da Feltre, and other Humanist 
Educators^ 1907, p. 106. 2 Ibid. p. 12. 



METHOD AND VALUE 9 

caution. Beware of wasting time over such a subject as 
the history of Bohemia or the history of Hungary. For 
such would be but the productions of mere ignorant 
chroniclers, a farrago of nonsense and lies, destitute of 
attraction in form or style or in grave reflections." x 

It is evident that the history which these writers had 
in mind was rather that of their ancestors, the Romans, 
than the history of mediaeval Europe, and it must not 
be forgotten that to the schoolboy of the Renaissance 
the Latin lesson, with Livy for a reading-book, was a 
lesson in history quite as much as in linguistics. While, no 
doubt, it was as difficult for the Italian as for the English 
schoolboy to become a finished scholar, it must have 
been far easier for him to read Livy quickly and thus to 
master its historical content intelligently than for the 
German boys on the other side of the Alps who brought 
to the task no stock of similar works in the vernacular, 
and therefore had to spell out the content laboriously 
with the aid of a dictionary. For this reason it is un- 
likely that in the post-Renaissance schools in Germany 
and England, where the classical authors were read more 
for their style than for their matter, the historical content 
was realised so fully as by the Italian boys. 

None the less when schoolmasters of any eminence 
expressed their views on education they frequently 
demanded history, and plenty of it, in the curriculum. 
" An acquaintance with history," said Comenius, " is the 
most important element in a man's education, and is, as 
it were, the eye of his whole life. This subject, therefore, 
should be taught in each of the six classes (of the 
grammar school), that our pupils may be ignorant of no 

1 Woodward, Vittorino Da Feltre, and other Humanist 
Educators, 1907, p. 152. 



io TEACHING OF HISTORY 

event which has happened from ancient times to the 
present day. Our idea is that each class should have 
its own handbook dealing with some special branch of 
history. Class I. An Epitome of Scripture History. 
Class II. Natural History. Class III. The History of 
Arts and Inventions. Class IV. The History of Morals. 
Class V. The History of Customs treating of the Habits 
of Different Nations. Class VI. The General History of 
the World and of the Principal Nations, but especially of 
the boys' native land, dealing with the whole subject 
tersely and comprehensively." x Locke also, who, though 
probably not representative of scholastic views in the 
seventeenth century, has strongly influenced subsequent 
opinion, lays stress on chronology, " that the pupil may 
have in his mind a view of the whole current of time and 
the several considerable epochs that are made use of in 
history. Without this, history, which is the great 
mistress of prudence and civil knowledge, and ought to 
be the proper study of a gentleman or a man of business 
in the world, will be very ill retained." 2 

In education the gulf between theories and practice is 
great. Sturm laid no stress on history in his Strasburg 
school, neither did the Jesuits in their establishments, 
nor Calvin in his grammar school at Geneva, nor the 
schools in Scotland founded on his model by John 
Knox. In English schools a manual of English History 
was actually ordered by the Privy Council in 1582 to be 
read in schools, 3 but for the sake of the boys of the 
period it may be hoped that the order was disobeyed. 

1 The Great Didactic, chap. xxx. 

2 Thoughts on Education, sec. 182. 

3 A?iglorum Proelia, ab a.d. 132J usque ad ann. 1558. 
Ghristophero Oclando authore, London, 1580. Ocland was 
master of St. Olave's School, Southwark. 



METHOD AND VALUE n 

Here is a taste of it dealing with that old friend of the 
text-books, the Wars of the Roses : — 

nobilitata inter plures haec sunt loca caede, 
Albani fanum, Blorum, Borealis et Hampton, 
Banbrecum campis, Barnettum collibus haerens, 
experrectorum (Wakefieldia) pagus, fanumque secundo 
Albani, propior Scoticis confinibus Exam, 
contiguoque istis habitantes rure coloni, 
moerentes hodie, quoties proscindit arator 
arva propinqua locis dentale revellere terra 
semisepulta virum sulcis cerealibus ossa. 

In 1650 Alexander Ross brought out an abridgment 
of Raleigh's History of the World under the title The 
Marrow of History, and as he was a schoolmaster the 
book may have been read by his pupils, but of this there 
is no evidence. From this time onwards there is a 
continuous stream of text-books, but absolutely no indi- 
cation that the subject was treated in schools as of any 
real importance ; indeed such text-books seem to have 
been used as material for Latin prose composition quite 
as much as for their historical value. 1 

It was not wholly through inadvertence that history 
was thus degraded to be a menial accessory of linguistics. 
The object of history was considered to be the illustration 
of abstract moral maxims, and as Aristotle had considered 
" moral philosophy " unsuited for the young, history was 
similarly thought to be beyond the grasp of school- 
boys. 2 In his inaugural lecture Degory Wheare, the 

1 New Thoughts concerning Education, by M. Rollin. Eng. 
Trans., 1735, P- 7 2 > note by translator upon a History of England 
recently published for schools " which may be of great benefit to 
the youth who may make their Latin exercises by it." 

2 The Method and Order of Reading both Civil and Ecclesi- 
astical Histories, by Degory Wheare, Cambden Reader of History 



12 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

first Camden Reader of History at Oxford, discusses 
the matter, and wonders that Voss, " who deserves to be 
numbered among the princes of learning in this age, 
should in his elegant book, De Arte Historica, maintain 
that this sort of study is fit for young men." 1 

Of theoretical writers on Education during the last 
century, only two have objected to history as a school 
subject. Herbert Spencer, writing before i860, found 
that the history of the text-book of his day was educa- 
tionally valueless, and he was probably right ; while 
Bain considered the subject too easy and too full of con- 
tentious matter for inclusion in the school curriculum. 2 

in Oxford, 17 10, p. 15. "History is the register and explication 
of particular affairs, undertaken to the end that the memory of 
them may be preserved and so universals may be the more 
evidently confirmed, by which we may be instructed how to live 
well and happily." 

1 The Method and Order of Reading both Civil and Ecclesi- 
astical Histories, p. 299. Wheare gives succinctly the arguments 
used on each side by Keckermann and Voss. According to Kecker- 
mann, histories contain nothing but examples of precepts, and 
method should precede, just as it is absurd for a man to desire to 
know and observe the examples of grammar, logic, or rhetoric, 
before he has learned the rules of those sciences ; thus one cannot 
read history, which is nothing but examples of morality and politics, 
till one has learned the rules and methods of morality and policy. 
On the other side Voss points out that languages may be learned 
without grammar rules, and that Keckermann confounds the 
naked and simple history of things with the historical perfection 
which inquires curiously into the circumstances and causes of events. 

2 H. Spencer, Education, pp. 30, 31. — "The information 
commonly given under this head is almost valueless for purposes 
of guidance. Scarcely any of the facts set down in our school 
histories, and very few of those contained in the more elaborate 
works written for adults, illustrate the right principles of political 
action." A. Bain, Education as a Science, 1878. — "The fact 
that history presents no difficulty to minds of ordinary education 
and experience, and is, moreover, an interesting form of literature, 
is a sufficient reason for not spending much time upon it in the 



METHOD AND VALUE 13 

As will be seen, both modern opinion and modern 
practice in schools tend greatly to undervalue the im- 
portance of history ; but before proceeding to consider 
this, it will be well to learn the views of the only 
historians during the last two hundred years who have 
combined with their expert knowledge a great interest 
in, or a thorough acquaintance with, the problems of 
education and of school-life — Rollin the historian, and 
Dr. Arnold of Rugby. 

Rollin, in his time an educational authority of un- 
doubted weight, speaks with certainty and conviction : 
" I look upon history as the first matter to be given to 
children, equally serviceable to entertain and instruct 
them, to form their hearts and understandings, and to 
enrich their memories with abundance of facts as agree- 
able as useful. It may likewise be of great service, by 
means of the pleasure inseparable from it, towards exciting 
the curiosity of that age which is ever desirous of being 
informed and inspiring a taste for study. Thus in point 
of education it is a fundamental principle, and constantly 
observed at all times, that the study of history should 
precede all the rest and prepare the way for them." 1 

Dr. Arnold's views, though only one hundred years 

curriculum of school or college. When there is any doubt we 
may settle the matter by leaving it out. A very searching inquiry 
into modern events brings out such a variety of opinions in 
practical politics and still more in religion as to make an obstacle 
to the introduction of the subject into higher schools." 

1 The Method of Teaching and Studying the Belles-Lettres, by 
M. Rollin, late Principal of the University of Paris, translated in 
4 vols., 1734, p. 6. Further on Rollin lays stress on four points. 
We should (1) endeavour to find out the causes of events ; 
(2) study the character of the people and great men men- 
tioned in history ; (3) observe in history what relates to 
manners and the conduct of life ; (4) carefully take knowledge of 
eveiything that bears any relation to religion. 



14 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

later, show a great advance in the stress laid upon the 
formal element in history, but in the main he agrees 
with Rollin. In one of the few specific essays on 
education that he wrote he begins by dealing with a 
possible misunderstanding. 1 " In the statement of the 
business of Rugby school, which has been given above, 
one part of it will be found to consist of works of modern 
history. An undue importance is attached by some 
persons to this circumstance, and those who would care 
little to have their sons familiar with the history of the 
Peloponnesian War are delighted that they should study 
the campaigns of Frederick the Great or of Napoleon. 
Information about modern events is more useful, they 
think, than that which relates to antiquity ; and such 
information they wish to be given to their children." 
After cavilling at the suggestion that it is desirable to 
fill boys with useful information, and giving some brief 
hints as to a method of teaching history in the elementary 
stage, he proceeds : " Supposing a boy to possess that 
outline of general history which his prints and his 
abridgments will have given him, with his associations, 
so far as they go, strong and lively, and his desire of 
increased knowledge keen, the next thing to be done is 
to set him to read some first-rate historian whose mind 
was formed in, and bears the stamp of, some period of 
advanced civilisation analogous to that in which we live. 
In other words, he should read Thucydides or Tacitus or 
any writer equal to them, if such can be found belonging 
to the third period of full civilisation, that of modern 
Europe since the Middle Ages. The particular subject 
of the history is of little moment so long as it can be 

1 An article contributed to the Quarterly Journal of Education 
in 1834. 



METHOD AND VALUE 15 

taken neither from the barbarian nor from the romantic, 
but from the philosophical or civilised stage of human 
society ; and so long as the writer be a man of com- 
manding mind, who has fully imbibed the influences of 
his age, yet without bearing its exclusive impress. And 
the study of such a work under an intelligent teacher 
becomes indeed the key of knowledge and of wisdom : 
first it affords an example of good historical evidence, 
and hence the pupil may be taught to notice from time 
to time the various criteria of a credible narrative, and 
by the rule of contraries to observe what are the indica- 
tions of a testimony questionable, suspicious or worthless. 
Undue scepticism may be repressed by showing how 
generally truth has been attained when it has been 
honestly and judiciously sought ; while credulity may 
be checked by pointing out, on the other hand, how 
manifold are the errors into which those are betrayed 
whose intellect or whose principles have been found 
wanting. Now, too, the time is come when the pupil 
may be introduced to that high philosophy which unfolds 
' the causes of things.' Let him be taught to analyse 
the subject thus presented to him ; to trace back institu- 
tions, civil and religious, to their origin ; to explore the 
elements of the national character, as now exhibited in 
maturity, in the vicissitudes of the nation's fortune, and 
the moral and physical qualities of his race ; to observe 
how the morals and minds of the people have been 
subject to a succession of influences, some accidental, 
some regular ; to see and remember what critical seasons 
of improvement have been neglected, what besetting 
evils have been wantonly aggravated, by wickedness or 
folly. In short, the pupil may be furnished as it were 
with certain formulae, which shall enable him to read all 



i6 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

history beneficially ; which shall teach him what to look 
for in it, how to judge of it, and how to apply it. 
Education will thus fulfil its great business, as far as 
regards the intellect, to inspire it with a desire of know- 
ledge, and to furnish it with power to obtain and to 
profit by what it seeks for." 

It may be noted that when he talks of history, Rollin 
has in mind ancient history, while Dr. Arnold, though 
he lays great stress on ancient history, does not exclude 
modern history, and was in fact one of the first, if not 
the first, headmaster of repute to give modern history a 
definite position in the time-table. Now no one who has 
had a classical education is likely to undervalue the 
knowledge of Greek and of Roman civilisation that he 
derived from it, for this knowledge has been acquired in 
a fashion that ensures its wearing well. It has soaked 
gradually into the mind while the linguistics have been 
mastered sentence by sentence and construction by 
construction. It has generally been concerned with a 
few limited and important periods. It has been gathered 
from the original documents, from works written with 
the intimacy but also with the limitations of those who 
were near the events, and together with the sequence of 
the narrative there has been acquired a fair intimacy 
with a few of the principal actors. Not only has a 
necessary basis been laid for the further understanding 
of history, but the method of laying it has been the 
soundest one possible. But although this is true, its 
truth may be an obstacle to a discussion upon the 
teaching of history in general, unless certain other facts 
are well borne in mind. 

In the first place, it may be doubted if as much history 
is at present acquired through the classics as was the 



METHOD AND VALUE 17 

case a few generations ago, when less stress was laid 
upon critical questions and upon composition for scholar- 
ship purposes. In the second place, fewer boys read the 
classics, and even these in most schools devote to them 
a much smaller number of hours than formerly. In the 
third place, an increasing number of boys read no classics 
at all, or at most acquire the rudiments of Latin. In 
the face of these facts to reiterate the statement that 
history can profitably be learned only through the classics 
is to leave the subject to the crammers and the text- 
books. Dr. Arnold has been quoted at length because 
he demands a factual knowledge of modern history in 
addition to the formal training to be derived from the 
study of the ancient historians, and because he writes 
with an enthusiasm born of his study both of history 
and of boys. Nothing is more striking than the difference 
of the note sounded by modern writers. In the preface 
to his excellent Introductory History of England \ Mr. C. 
R. L. Fletcher says roundly that " for English History 
as part of a school curriculum or as a means of education 
I have no regard at all. The substitution of modern 
history and other modern subjects in our great schools 
for Greek and Latin I regard as nothing short of an 
irretrievable calamity." 1 Mr. A. Hassall follows in a 
similar strain : " It is doubtful if many schoolmasters 
have yet discovered the best methods of training boys in 
history. In far too many instances Greek and Latin 
History is displaced for mediaeval and modern History." 2 

1 It is open to question whether the mischievousness of this 
statement coming from a writer of merit is aggravated or palliated 
by the excellence of the history which follows. 

2 The Public Schools from Within, 1 906, article on History. 
Apparently no schoolmaster could be found " from within " to 
write the chapter. 

2 



1 8 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

An Eton master, responsible for the teaching of history, 
is reserved in the statement of his views : " The claims 
of History are still matters of dispute." 1 Apparently he 
has good reason for saying so. " Our public schools 
teach little or nothing about the Empire. English History 
and Literature are barely tolerated." 2 It is not many 
years since the headmaster of a great school stated at 
the Headmasters' Conference that history could be 
nothing but a cram subject. 3 A Clifton master expresses 
the same sentiment : " Exceptional boys apart, history 
should be a purely subordinate study, as it tends to 
become vague, desultory, or didactic." 4 

When made in connexion with the classical side of a 
great school the plea that the classical history does what 
is necessary, though misleading, contains a half truth ; 
it is when such a half truth is used to justify the 
neglect of an important subject on modern sides that its 
mischievous nature is apparent. It is noteworthy that 
in the accounts of the Modern Sides at Public Schools 
recently published by the Board of Education there is 
no indication that the subject is looked upon as one of 
first importance, or that any attempt has been made to 
fashion it into a real ergastulum. 5 

1 The Teaching of History, 1 901, p. 91, chapter on " The 
Teaching of History in Schools," by Mr. C. H. K. Marten. 

2 Rev. T. L. Papillon, in The Public Schools from Within, 
p. 284. 

3 A distinguished teacher of history at Oxford has assured 
the writer (1) that boys should learn no history at school, but 
should reserve this study for the University; (2) that if those who 
do not go to a University must learn some history, this should be 
limited to an outline of facts and dates. 

4 Mr. A. B. Mayor, in Moral Instruction and Training in 
Schools, edited by M. E. Sadler, vol. i. p. 142. 

5 Board of Education. Educational Pamphlets, Nos. 3, 7, 8, 



METHOD AND VALUE 19 

The truth is that the burning conviction which underlies 
the expression of Arnold's views, the feeling that a 
training in history, and more particularly in certain 
elements of historical method, is of such vital importance 
that with whatever expenditure of trouble, or at whatever 
neglect of other subjects, the subject must be given a 
prominent place and worked so that it commands respect, 
is nowhere to be found. Owing to the pressure of 
external examinations a modicum of historical fact has 
to be got up, but in most schools history is still casually 
classed under what are called " the English subjects," 
and the methods adopted in teaching it are probably as 
casual as the classification. 

When a subject with such strong claims is habitually 
discredited by men engaged in serious educational prac- 
tice the cause doubtless is, in certain cases, ignorance and 
perversity ; but on the whole it is more likely to be the well- 
justified feeling that a subject in which the work has to be 
done for the boy by the teacher, 1 which in the long run 
resolves itself into either listening to interesting matter or 
learning by heart, which is, in short, a soft option, is 
unsuited to be a main study for boys of a certain age. 

It is, however, by no means certain that history is of 
this nature or need be taught in this way, and it is clear 
that if the subject is of first-rate importance, the problem 
of method deserves serious attention. It is in the belief 
that for purposes of culture no other subject can approach 
history, that the following pages have been written. 

10, dealing with the Modern Sides at Harrow, Rugby, Eton, and 
Dulwich. 

1 Mr. C. H. K. Marten, op. cit. : " It is the teacher — before a 
boy can read much for himself — who must generalise from and 
analyse facts; who must give his judgment on men and events ; 
who must explain causes and estimate effects." 



CHAPTER II 

SCIENTIFIC METHOD IN HISTORY AND THE PROBLEMS 
OF THE SCHOOL 

As soon as the nursery period is over, three stages of 
history teaching may be distinguished. The first covers 
approximately the years between seven and twelve, the 
second those between twelve and sixteen, and the third 
the last three years of school life. Demarcation of 
periods by age can give only a partial indication of the 
degree of mental development implied, as boys vary 
greatly. On the whole, however, if we take it that 
exceptional boys may be some years ahead of or short 
of the average, these three stages correspond to the facts 
of school life, and may be termed the preparatory, the 
secondary, and the upper secondary. It is impossible to 
read the various essays that of late years have appeared 
on the teaching of history without noticing that writers 
who deal with the first stage have no misgiving as to 
the value of their subject. " Almost all who have taught 
history to boys and girls," says Mr. A. M. Curteis, 
" agree in estimating its relative value very highly." 
And again, " the masters of preparatory schools as a 
body are convinced that, apart from the actual know- 
ledge gained, the process of gaining it helps to strengthen 
memory, that it is one of the most effectual means of 

20 



METHOD AND SCHOOL PROBLEMS 21 

developing intelligence and training judgment, and that 
it awakens imagination." 1 So also the late Professor 
Withers, writing with particular reference to elementary- 
schools : " A man who is ignorant of Algebra cannot be 
called ' uneducated ' in the same sense as a man who is 
ignorant of History, nor is his ignorance likely to be so 
injurious to himself and to others." 2 This unanimity of 
opinion, of which it would be easy to give further 
instances, is not difficult to account for. The more 
obvious methods of teaching history, those upon which 
a teacher interested in his subject but with no school 
tradition to draw upon is most likely to chance, are just 
those that prove to be most suitable for children of this 
age, while in addition it is tacitly taken for granted that 
the subject is a very subsidiary one, to which one or at 
most two hours a week are given. For the teaching of 
history during this preparatory stage the method is 
largely one of presentation. The instruments are a text- 
book or a reading-book, pictures in the books used and 
on the walls of the class-room, and collections of suit- 
able ballads, while stress is laid upon the biographies 
of men of action, and these are made the concentration 
points of the narrative. It is not for a moment implied 
that boys of this age are to be purely receptive, that they 
should only read the text-book, look at pictures, and 
listen to well-told descriptions of persons and events. 
The clever teacher will, with the older boys at any rate, 
encourage some note-taking, will ask questions that stimu- 
late thought, and will set written work that demands 

1 Special Reports on Educational Subjects, vol. vi., Pre- 
paratory Schools for Boys, art. on "The Teaching of History in 
Preparatory Schools," by A. M. Curteis. 

2 Memorandum on the Teaching of History, by Professor 
H. L. Withers, M.A., 1901. 



22 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

it ; and for boys of this age it may even be sufficient, in 
a lesson that comes once or at most twice a week, if the 
imagination is excited and interest is aroused. But pro- 
bably towards the end of this stage, certainly as soon as 
the next is reached, and with a force that increases with 
each successive year, it becomes apparent that something 
more is needed. In comparison with the linguistic or 
the mathematical lessons which daily are making further 
demands upon the thinking powers, the history lesson 
seems to the boys to be a breathing-space, interesting 
enough, no doubt, if the teacher is good, but not one in 
which a serious effort, comparable, say, to that required 
in solving algebraical problems, has to be made. When 
once a boy feels this, his respect for a subject vanishes, 
and he labels it as a soft option. 

Now for soft options, for subjects that are not taught 
in such a manner that the boys feel their seriousness, 
there is in the curriculum no room at all. It is already 
overcrowded, and often, as result, ten subjects are taught 
badly where four or five used to be taught well. If it is 
maintained that a few soft hours are needed to avoid 
over-pressure, the answer is that in that case the boys 
would be better off out of doors, or in the workshop, or 
at a choral practice. There ought to be no middle way 
between teaching a subject as a pure convention and 
equipping it with a real method. If the first course is 
decided upon, if it appears good to lay stress upon 
subjects other than history but to teach it because it 
would make a bad impression upon parents if it were 
omitted from the time-table, or because it is desirable 
that a boy should be cognizant of a few of the leading 
names and dates in English history, let it be taught from 
this standpoint. Let twenty to forty minutes a week be 



METHOD AND SCHOOL PROBLEMS 23 

given to it, and let the brute facts be administered from 
a text-book by a strong disciplinarian. This will waste 
little time, and the professed aim will be attained. In 
this matter there must be no shirking of the issues. 
The history hour can provide either a modicum of con- 
ventional knowledge, of which much is almost valueless 
as mental content, and much will be forgotten within a 
few years of leaving school, or it may supply a real 
training in observation, judgment, and expression. As 
with every other subject, we must definitely select our 
aim, and having done so must take steps to ensure its 
attainment. 

The sound method of teaching any subject in schools 
must always stand in close relations with the scientific 
development of that subject, and in particular with the 
formal treatment of that scientific development by the 
logician. It is noticeable that in schools the handling 
of many subjects remains centuries in arrear of their 
scientific development. Napier, for example, discovered 
logarithms in 1612. It was not till the end of the nine- 
teenth century that they were placed as an instrument 
in the hands of middle - school boys. 1 Only thirty 
years ago the teaching of science in many schools (at 
this date school science meant chemistry) was based 
solely upon the text-book, and it was possible for a 
candidate to pass an examination like the University of 
London Matriculation without having seen or handled a 
piece of chemical apparatus. Since that date there has 
been development in several directions. Increased atten- 
tion has been given to the methods of inductive science. 

1 They were introduced at the Royal Naval College, Osborne, 
in 1904, at Winchester a few years earlier, and doubtless in other 
schools at about the same time. 



24 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

Indeed, since the formal inductive methods were stated 
by J. S. Mill they have been repeated, modified, and 
criticised in every serious work on logic, and men of 
science themselves, though probably quite careless of the 
attention paid to their methods by logicians, read and 
are affected by works like Professor Karl Pearson's 
Grammar of Science. As a consequence partly of this 
increased consciousness of method, and partly of the 
teaching instinct on the part of teachers who felt that if 
science had to be introduced into schools, means must be 
devised for giving their pupils plenty of active work, 1 
laboratories have been introduced into schools, and in 
these opportunity is given for observation and in- 
vestigation. In addition, by some schoolmasters at 
any rate, the pupils are compelled to consider the 
logical processes through which they have gone and to 
realise how much of the result attained has been given 
to them, how much they have proved for themselves, and 
the degree of validity of that proof. It is also sug- 
gested, though perhaps not yet to any extent realised 
in practice, that older pupils should be introduced to 
some consideration of the nature of the ultimate 
hypotheses in chemistry, physics, and biology. 2 

Turning to the scientific treatment of history we find 
a similar development in the attention paid to method, 
although this does not yet seem to have affected school- 

1 And, it may be added, in spite of the injudicious and some- 
times ill-expressed advocacy of certain Professors of natural 
science. 

2 A most interesting sketch of a method by which, starting 
from the experiments of the school laboratory, an insight may be 
given into these ultimate facts of science, is to be found in Philo- 
sophische Profiadeutik auf naturwissensckafllicher Grundlage fur 
ho here Lehranstalten, von August Schulte-Tigges, 1900. 



METHOD AND SCHOOL PROBLEMS 25 

teaching. From the sixteenth century onward there 
have appeared at intervals works treating of the logical 
processes through which the historian goes, and of recent 
years this consciousness of method has found expression 
in several important works. 1 A brief account of the 
function, the scope, and the materials of the historian, 
as stated by Bernheim and others, will facilitate the 
business of this essay. 

The conception of the function of history has gone 
through three stages. In the first it is narrative, and 
conditioned by aesthetic interest and imagination. In 
the second it is instructive, embodies more reflection, 
and may be actuated by patriotism or by moral aims. 
In the third it seeks to know how each individual event 
came into being and developed in the complex of condi- 
tions, and busies itself with notions of causation. 2 The 
growth of this conception, it may be observed, stands 
in close relation with the methods which can successively 
be adopted in the various school stages. In the pre- 
paratory stage the presentation might be aesthetic and 
interesting, in the secondary stage moral aims and reflec- 
tions might be introduced, while the tracing of cause and 
effect might be reserved for the third or upper secondary 
stage. It is, however, not permissible to base method 
upon such a crude notion of psychological development. 
This was Rousseau's mistake ; since his time it has been 
recognised that mental growth is gradual, and cannot be 
split off into sections, each displaying a marked difference 

1 Chief amongst these is Bernheim's Lehrbuch der historischen 
Methode, 6th edition, 1908. An account of the works in which 
historical method has been treated since the sixteenth century 
will be found on p. 217 

2 Bernheim, op. cit. p. 22. 



26 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

from those which immediately precede and follow. The 
preparatory stage, it is true, stands in marked contrast 
to the upper secondary as regards mental powers, but it 
develops gradually into it through what we have called 
the secondary stage, and it is precisely at this point that 
our difficulty is greatest. For here the various mental 
qualities and powers are all present in embryo, sometimes 
to a considerable degree of development, and it is not 
easy in general terms to say how much it is safe to take 
for granted ; but of this later. 

Accompanying this increasing clearness in the con- 
ception of the stages of history there has arisen a 
tendency to widen the scope of the subject matter that 
falls within its province. We have, in fact, confronting 
one another two great groups or complexes of sciences ; 
on the one side natural science, dealing with the facts of 
physical nature, their investigation and manipulation, 
and on the other a group consisting of history, anthro- 
pology, sociology, and psychology, dealing similarly 
with the facts of human nature. As many of these 
subjects are only just coming into existence, it is not 
easy to delimit their spheres. For instance, the exact 
relation in which history stands to sociology is to some 
extent a question of terms, and is complicated by the 
tradition of the positive philosophy that lingers round 
the term sociology, since this was first used by Comte to 
denote the science of human nature regarded as con- 
ditioned by purely physical causes. The term is, how- 
ever, now used without this implication to denote a 
group of human phenomena wider than that treated of by 
the conventional history of the last generation, which, to 
a large extent, excluded economic and social questions. 
Its nature is made clear by a syllabus of sociology 



METHOD AND SCHOOL PROBLEMS 27 

suitable for secondary education suggested by M. A. 
Fouillee. 1 

1. Importance of sociology. The nature of society. Is 
it a simple collection of individuals ? Is it an organism ? 
Subordination of biological to psychological laws in sociology. 
The part played by sympathy, by imitation, by invention, by 
will, and by voluntary co-operation. 

2. Conditions of equilibrium and conditions of progress 
tor societies and in particular for nations. The individual, 
the family, and the State. Nations and the psychology of 
peoples. The French nation. 

3. Economic sociology. Production, distribution, and con- 
sumption of commodities. 

4. Property from the sociological standpoint. Examina- 
tion of socialist systems. Materialistic and idealistic socialism. 

5. Political sociology. The principles on which democracy 
depends. The true meaning and limits of national sovereignty. 
Advantages and dangers of democracy. 

6. Moral, juridical, and criminal sociology. Alcoholism. 
Depopulation. The growth of criminality in France. Juvenile 
criminality. 

7. The republican constitution in France. The rights 
which it confers and the duties which it demands. 

M. Fouillee adds : "Ina word, under this title of sociology 
must be grouped a number of questions which to-day are 
treated without scientific method and in too dogmatic a 
manner." 

Instead of " sociology " the term " social science " is 
sometimes used to indicate this complex. 2 Whatever 

1 A. Fouillee, Revue Internationale de sociologie, October 
1899. 

2 " Le mot sociologie avait 6te invente par les philosophes, il 
correspondait a une tentative pour grouper des branches de 
science restees isolees sous une conception philosophique 
d'ensemble. II parait avoir eu le m£me sort que cette con- 
ception : apres une periode de vogue, il semble menace* de 
sortir de la langue. Le mot sciences sociales est entrd dans 
l'usage pour indiquer a peu pres le meme ensemble d'e'tudes." 



28 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

the term employed, it is evident that there is here a 
complex of objects of scientific study which in part 
roughly corresponds to and in part arises out of the 
subject taught in schools under the traditional name of 
history. 1 

For this science of human life and development the 
doctrine of historical method now proceeds to enumerate 
and to classify the data. These fall under the two 
headings of data left unconsciously and data left con- 
sciously. The first comprises monuments, language, 
institutions, bodily remains ; the second includes 
historical pictures, plans, sculptures, sagas, proverbs, 
historical songs, inscriptions, genealogies, calendars, 
annals, chronicles, biographies, memoirs, letters, state 
documents. 2 This catalogue of data is not without 
importance, as the difference in method between the 
two groups of nature studies and of human-nature 
studies depends upon the differences between their 
respective subject matters. In natural science the fact 
to be studied is before the observer, and can be repeated 
at will ; in social science the object of study in many 
cases is in the first instance a document from which 
the historic fact has to be reconstructed. Bearing this 
in mind, it is now possible roughly to contrast the 
methods of the two sciences. In natural science we 
have to explain some fact, let this be rust or the rising 
of mercury in the barometer ; we do so : — 

Ch. Seignobos, La Methode historique appliquee aux sciences 
societies, 1 90 1, p. 7. 

1 Bernheim is of opinion that sociology differs from history 
in its abstract manner of dealing with its subject matter. 
" Sociology ignores the individual, neglects the psychical motives 
and creative activity, while for history these are important 
factors to be discovered and known." 

2 Bernheim, op. cit. p. 250. 



METHOD AND SCHOOL PROBLEMS 29 

1. By considering a number of hypothetical causes 
which we are led to imagine by our knowledge both 
general and particular of the manner in which elements 
affect one another. 

2. By then trying the supposed causes until finally 
we see, say, rust produced. If we are then certain 
that only the conditions which we have arranged are 
in operation, we have worked back to the cause. 

3. The explanation is, however, not complete. It 
is not correct to say that we see the cause in operation. 
We see the cause, but the operation is an unseen one, 
which we provisionally describe and make concrete to 
the imagination by hypotheses as to the existence of 
atoms and molecules, and their quantitative combinations 
under certain laws. 

In history, on the other hand, we (1) observe some 
human product; it may be a monument, an inscription, 
or a document : in most cases the latter. (2) We reason 
back from the document to the causes that produced 
it, i.e. to the historical fact. This we do by applying 
a number of methodical principles. (3) Having con- 
structed the fact we then explain it by referring it to 
human motive. (4) We can then, if we wish, attempt 
to trace the operation of this fact in the complex of 
other facts that we discover in the same way. Between 
the two groups, therefore, the following differences of 
method are outstanding : — 

1. In history, as opposed to natural science, the fact 
which is at hand for observation is not the historical 
fact, but merely a description of it, and in many, if not 
in most cases, a very unreliable one. The transition 
from the document to the fact is difficult, occupies 
a great part of the historian's time, and dictates to him 



3 o TEACHING OF HISTORY 

the nature of his method. In history there is thus 
an additional, and frequently a very uncertain step, 
which is not to be found to the same extent in natural 
science. 1 

2. In natural science experimentation is possible, 
and is in fact the basis of discovery. In history, as 
in all social science, experimentation is impossible. 
We cannot arrange the supposed causes artificially to 
see if they produce the given effect. 

3. Thus in history, where the first stage of reasoning 
is always regressive, we can only argue back to a 
number of hypothetical causes and discover indirectly 
which is the most probable. This element of probability 
is to be found in two stages : {a) in the transition from 
the document to the fact ; (b) in that from the fact to 
the human cause ; e.g. the shaky handwriting of a 
signature may indicate (1) that the writer was on his 
death-bed, or (2) that he was intoxicated, or (3) that he 
wrote it in an express train. We can only surmise with 
a greater or a less degree of probability from the general 
nature of the case, and from our knowledge of the writer 
and his conditions which of these causes is likely to be 
the right one. 

It is thus to the criticism and analysis of documents 
that a great part of historical method devotes itself. 
This criticism may be of two kinds, to which the names 
of (1) external, (2) internal criticism are given. External 
criticism has as its object critical exegesis and the 
establishment of the correct text of a document ; it 
asks, in other words, if the data are admissible. Internal 

1 " Toute connaissance historique etant indirecte, l'histoire est 
essentiellement une science de raisonnement." — Seignobos, La 
Methode historique appliqice'e aux sciences societies, p. 5. 



METHOD AND SCHOOL PROBLEMS 31 

criticism is concerned with the relation between the data 
and the facts. It has to determine "(1) what the writer 
really believed, for he may not have been sincere ; (2) 
what he really knew, for he may have been mistaken." x 
Two types of criteria are thus needed : (a) criteria of 
sincerity ; {b) criteria of accuracy. 

Criteria of sincerity lead us to consider the following 
positions : — 

1. The writer sought to gain some practical advantage 
for himself or the group to which he belonged. 

2. He was placed in a situation which compelled 
him to violate truth, e.g. he had to draw up a document 
in conformity with custom. 

3. From sympathy with or antipathy for a group of 
men he was led to distort facts so as not to represent 
his friends in an unfavourable light. 

4. He was induced by private or collective vanity to 
violate truth by exalting himself or his group. 

5. The author desired to please the public or at 
least to avoid shocking it. He has expressed senti- 
ments in harmony with popular ideas. 

6. He tried to please the public by literary devices. 
In other words, his facts have suffered aesthetic, rhetorical, 
or dramatic distortion. 

Criteria of accuracy draw our attention to the 
following possibilities : — 

1. The author was in a situation to observe the fact 
and thought he had done so, but was prevented by, say, 
prejudice from doing so. 

2. The author may have been badly situated for 
observing. He may not have been able to see and 

1 Langlois and Seignobos, Introduction to the Study oj 
History, Eng. Trans., p. 165. 



32 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

hear well. He may not have written down what he 
saw until some time after the occurrence. 

3. He states facts which he did not take the trouble 
to observe, although he might have done so. 

4. The fact stated is one that could not be learned 
by observation alone. Inference and judgment have to 
be allowed for. 1 

From this brief review it is evident that as a result 
of modern historical tendencies the subject matter of 
history is conceived of as being wider than formerly, 
and that for operations upon it a large number of 
methods and principles have been suggested. Further, 
it is recognised that the ultimate facts which have to 
be reconstituted are human motives as the causes of 
social phenomena ; while among other topics that have 
received attention, and which stand in close connexion 
with the schoolmaster's work, is that of the relative 
importance in determining any event of the individual 
and of the social complex to which he belongs. 2 

There are, then, two distinct fields of knowledge, 
mutually opposed and yet with many bonds of con- 
nexion ; that of natural science and that of human 
science. The schoolboy can be turned into either of them 
with equal ease, and in both he can be given material 
to observe and to manipulate, opportunities for drawing 
inferences, for exercising his power of working with 
accuracy, and for testing his strength in the attack upon 
difficult problems. In both it is possible to devise 
plenty of independent work for the pupil, in both this 
work can be regulated and graded until it exactly suits 

1 Langlois and Seignobos, op. cit. p. 172. 

2 Cf. K. Lamprecht, What is History? Eng. Trans., 1905, 
chap. i. 



METHOD AND SCHOOL PROBLEMS 33 

his capacity, in both the interest of the pupil can be 
excited. 

Thus in theory the two sides, as far as formal 
operations are concerned, seem to be of equal value. 
In practice, experience shows that this equality is not 
recognised. Most schools of any importance have a 
science laboratory, upon which a considerable sum of 
money is spent yearly ; for the history lesson few 
schools supply any apparatus but a text-book and a 
blackboard. Natural science, as a branch of knowledge 
equipped with methods and apparatus, has had the 
start of social science. Moreover, it appeals to the 
crude utilitarian instinct and, in spite of the efforts 
of head-masters who know their business, the pressure 
of pseudo-utilitarianism is one which it is difficult to 
resist. Nor are teachers of science behindhand in 
finding arguments in favour of their subject. A 
favourite theme is the formal training to be derived 
from it, and we are told that science trains to observa- 
tion and to inference as does no other subject. Now the 
argument from formal training is a weak and crumbling 
support. It is notorious that men who observe well in 
one field, and who draw sound inferences from their 
observations, may be unobservant and unsound of 
judgment in another. The stockbroker has exercised 
his powers of observation and of inference on the 
Stock Exchange ; they fail him in the chemical 
laboratory or when literary judgment is required. 
The clergyman grown grey in his parish has observed 
much, and has drawn many a shrewd conclusion as 
to his parishioners' characters. His formal training 
would serve him but little if he attempted to apply 
it to the function of a bookmaker or of a commercial 

3 



34 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

traveller. The results of formal training are directly 
transferable in so far as there are common elements 
in the subject-matters concerned. The formal train- 
ing left by classical study stands me in good stead 
when I am attacking a modern language because the 
fields of action are not wholly dissimilar. But the 
formal training given in the laboratory cannot be 
depended upon for use in a sphere so different as 
that of human relations, and, therefore, if the two 
spheres are of equal importance, the attention paid to 
a formal training in science is no excuse for neglecting 
to give a similar training on the side of humanity. 

This is not the place to assess the relative worth for 
the community as a whole of the sciences and of the 
humanities. To do so would necessitate an elaborate 
exposition of values which is beyond the scope of this 
essay, and for society the importance of science is 
unquestioned. It is a different matter when we turn to 
the individual. We live in an age of specialisation, a 
fact which Mr. Herbert Spencer in his work on Educa- 
tion seems to forget. It is desirable that all schoolboys 
should be introduced to the world of science, and to the 
elements of scientific method, because of their relative 
importance in the world which they are shortly about to 
enter. But once his school-days are over, not one boy 
in a hundred will ever again be brought into contact 
with chemical processes, or be compelled to make any 
physical calculations. The ordinary adult pays experts 
to perform these operations for him, and as a rule is too 
sensible to run the risk of doing them badly. Almost 
the only occasion on which the citizen ever observes the 
operations of nature, and draws inferences from them, is 
when he looks at the heavens and decides whether or 



METHOD AND SCHOOL PROBLEMS 35 

not to take out his umbrella. Happy is the man who 
has learned not to do so, but to consult the weather 
forecast instead. For the expert is generally right, and 
the layman had better trust to the sortes Vergilianae 
than to his own judgment. 

It is different with the other great department of 
school studies. The youth may never again see a test 
tube or a balance, but he cannot fail to be brought into 
contact with men. On no single occasion in his life may 
he ever have to draw an inference from his physical 
surroundings, but he can seldom escape the necessity of 
making up his mind about his fellow-creatures. His 
success in life will probably, will almost certainly, depend 
upon the ease and correctness with which he observes 
words, both written and spoken, and draws inferences 
from them ; x he will on countless occasions need to 
analyse documents, to abstract them, and to compare 
them ; he will seldom be freed from the necessity of 
inferring motives from actions and character from deeds ; 
and it is precisely to these classes of mental operations, and 
to familiarity with these factors in human life, that school 
history, if properly conceived, and the history lesson, if 
properly conducted, will introduce him. If school is to 
educate for life, it appears that the department of social 
science is many times of greater value than that of 
physical science, and if this is so, a sound method for 
teaching history is of the first importance. 

1 "By far the most important and comprehensive application of 
this class of inference {i.e. from an effect to its cause) takes place 
in the interpretation from words, gestures, and actions of" the 
thoughts, feelings, and resolutions of other people, which indeed 
can be known in no other way." — Sigwart, Logic, Eng. Trans., 
vol. ii. p. 428. 



CHAPTER III 

CONTEMPORARY DOCUMENTS AS A BASIS OF METHOD 

THE lack of uniformity, which is such a happy char- 
acteristic of English schools, makes it difficult to state 
with any certainty what are the modes of teaching 
history to middle forms at present most in vogue ; and 
scattered through the body of teachers there are so 
many men of real capacity, that it is never safe to 
conclude that a given method, no matter how unlike 
those in common use, has not been employed some- 
where, if it has in it any element of vitality. Indeed, 
with a subject like Education, in which so few records 
of practice have been kept, it is always possible that 
some one has been centuries in advance of contemporary 
practice. There is to hand, however, a work recently 
translated from the German by an English schoolmaster, 
with an introduction by a distinguished Professor of 
History, which gives a succinct account of the method 
probably adopted by many businesslike teachers. 1 

1 The Teaching of History, by Dr. Oscar Jaeger, translated 
by H. J. Chaytor, M.A., with an introduction by C. H. Firth, 
M.A., 1908. It is not out of place to state here that when 
this work appeared in Germany some fourteen years ago it 
was already old-fashioned, and probably represented with fairness 
only the more conservative type of German historical teaching. 
It is, however, a very characteristic production of sturdy con- 
servatism, and well worth reading. 

36 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 37 

The method that is under consideration by Dr. Jaeger 
as the most suitable for middle forms appears to be 
based on the employment of the text- book. "The 
use of the text-book (with the IV. Form) will not differ 
materially from that which obtains with the third. A 
section of the text-book will be read aloud at this stage 
by one pupil alone ; one such reading will be sufficient. 
The master then goes through the narrative with all the 
stimulating detail that his dexterity and knowledge of 
the subject will allow him to introduce. The section or 
sections that have been thus worked through in form 
will then be read by the pupil at home. He will learn 
the facts so that he can repeat them when questioned by 
the master in the following lesson." x The text-book is, 
however, to be supplemented by a " narrative lecture." 
" The tone and character of the instruction is, however, 
determined by the teacher, and follows from his grasp of 
the subject, his manner of presenting it, and his mode of 
narrative ; on these points the text-book should not 
prejudge his efforts. A style of lecture - teaching 
essentially informal, as it is natural and desirable at this 
stage of instruction, can be attained after some period of 
learning and practice. Our object at this moment is not 
to deal with a large mass of information in one lesson, 
but merely to expound such material as the text-book 
provides, and provides in sections of moderate length ; 
moreover, the teacher is perfectly well able, without 
exciting the surprise of the pupils, to glance at the text- 
book from time to time, if the thread of the argument 
escape him, as may well happen." 2 

It is not suggested that this sort of thing, if really 
well done, is of no value, but it may well be doubted if 

1 Op. cit. p. 77. 2 Ibid. p. 45. 



38 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

history teaching of this kind would be anything but a 
very inefficient substitute for the more rigorous training 
given by the traditional school subjects when well taught, 
and it is probable that the moral effect of such teaching 
will be far less than it well might be if a method 
which would induce more activity and more varied 
activity on the part of the pupil were used. The question 
to be answered is this : " How can history be made into 
a real training school for the mind, worthy of no incon- 
siderable place in the curriculum in schools where the 
classics are taught, and of a large place in modern schools 
and on modern sides where little or no classics are 
taught ? " 

For an answer to this question we must turn to the 
methods of the modern scientific historian. Our pupils 
can be given materials to work upon and plenty of them. 
The documents from which history has been written, 
and is to be written, are to be had for the asking. If 
only we make use of this material, if we fashion this new 
instrument to suit our needs, the problem of history 
teaching is by no means solved, but the avenue through 
which it may be attacked is opened up. 

Our subject, then, must be reduced to problem form, 
and our pupils must be confronted with documents, and 
forced to exercise their minds upon them. A word of 
explanation is here needed. It is possible and suitable 
to derive a portion of our method from the scientific 
processes of the historian, but it must not be imagined 
that the aim is to convert schoolboys into historians. 
The boy is no more placed in the position of the historian 
who weighs and estimates his raw material, than the 
boy in the laboratory who is being put through a course 
of practical work is, to use the absurd phrase of the 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 39 

crank investigationist, being placed in the position of the 
scientific discoverer. Neither does the pupil, as the 
American votaries of the " source " method would have 
it, construct his own history and write his own text-book. 
What really takes place is widely different. The boy is 
given problems and exercises devised so that they suit 
his strength and cultivate certain activities and powers, 
and these exercises are of a highly artificial kind. They 
are as artificial in their relation to historical method as 
the exercises and proofs in the school algebra are to 
the mathematics of the engineer, the actuary, and the 
advanced mathematician. Scientific historical method 
shows the schoolmaster the way, his instinct and his 
experience direct him to the details of practice. 

To persons of a simple and trusting disposition, to 
the habitual readers of the halfpenny press, and to 
Herbartian educationists of a certain type, everything 
that appears in print seems to be equally worthy of 
credence. Our pupils must not be allowed to remain in 
this blissful state of mind. We must lead them in the 
history lesson to apply the more simple criteria of 
accuracy and of sincerity, we must train them to read 
closely and to extract from a document all the internal 
evidence that is to be found there, to compare and to 
rationalise conflicting accounts of characters and of 
events ; and more important than all, though less showy, 
to summarise and to extract salient points from a series 
of loose, verbose, or involved statements. These exercises 
may involve little more than an almost mechanical 
process, or they may be devised so as to make demands 
upon the boy's whole ingenuity. Of whatever degree 
they may be, they necessitate class-room apparatus 
widely differing from the conventional text-book. 



4 o TEACHING OF HISTORY 

Not that the text-book is to be discarded. Whatever 
method of teaching history is adopted, a summary of 
facts and dates, a sequence of events, a compendium of 
genealogies must be to hand. These things have to be 
learned by the beginner in history as paradigms have to 
be learned by the beginner in Greek. Neither in history 
nor in any other subject can a basis of memory-work 
be dispensed with. But the text-book is but half the 
apparatus, and it is a half that is not more than the 
whole. To complete it, and to give materials for exercises, 
contemporary documents must be supplied ; and not 
merely brought into the class-room for illustrative 
purposes, to be used as an expansion of the text-book, 
but placed straight in the boy's hand for him to use his 
wits upon. 1 

When such documents are provided in the form either 
of graphed slips or of volumes of extracts or of both, 
they can be used in many ways. The following illustra- 
tions are not classified according to the different mental 
operations demanded, since this classification involves 
many difficulties, and is not very necessary for the 
present purpose. They are intended only to indicate a 
few types of exercises that can be varied to any extent 
by a competent teacher. 

I. Conditions. — The class is reading the Reign of 

Richard II. and the Peasants' Revolt, but has not been 

introduced to any of the sources. They are given the 

following extract from Froissart, without any information 

as to its authorship : — 

1 Some excellent compendia of documents illustrative of 
English History are already used by history teachers for atmo- 
spheric purposes. Colby's Selections from the Sources of English 
History ', 1899, and Kendall's Source Book of English History, 
both of American origin, are excellent examples of such books. 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 41 

Extract : — 

It is marvellous from what a trifle this pestilence raged in 
England. In order that it may serve as an example to man- 
kind, I will speak of all that was done, from the information 
I had at the time on the subject. 

It is customary in England, as well as in several other 
countries, for the nobility to have great privileges over the 
commonalty, whom they keep in bondage; that is to say 
they are bound by law and custom to plough the lands of 
gentlemen, to harvest the grain, to carry it home to the barn, 
to thrash and winnow it ; they are also bound to harvest the 
hay and carry it home. All these services they are obliged 
to perform for their lords, and many more in England than in 
other countries. The prelates and gentlemen are thus served. 
In the counties of Kent, Essex, Sussex, and Bedford, these 
services are more oppressive than in all the rest of the 
kingdom. 

The evil-disposed in these districts began to rise, saying 
they were too severely oppressed ; that at the beginning of 
the world there were no slaves, and that no one ought to be 
treated as such, unless he had committed treason against his 
lord : but they had done no such thing, for they were neither 
angels nor spirits, but men formed after the same likeness with 
their lords, who treated them as beasts. This they would not 
longer bear, but had determined to be free, and if they laboured 
or did any other works for their lords, they would be paid 
for it. 

A crazy priest in the county of Kent, called John Ball, 
who, for his absurd preaching, had been thrice confined in 
the prison of the Archbishop of Canterbury, was greatly 
instrumental in inflaming them with those ideas. 

Exercise. — From the internal evidence write down 
everything that can be gathered about the author. 

The points that a boy may reasonably be expected 
to get hold of are the following : — x 

1 For this and for the following exercises the results noted as 
probable have been given to the writer by widely differing classes 



42 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

i . The writer was contemporary. From the informa- 
tion I had at the time on the subject. 

2. He seems acquainted both with England and with 
Europe. It is customary in England as well as in several 
other countries. 

3. He appears to know the situation in England very 
well. E.g. Reference to Kent, Essex, Sussex, and 
Bedford. 

4. He seems to be on the side of the upper classes. 
The evil disposed in these districts. 

5. But is at the same time sympathetic with the rebels. 

6. He may have been a priest with conservative ten- 
dencies. A crazy priest, who for his absurd preaching. 

General Inference. — He was either an Englishman who 
had travelled abroad, or a foreigner who had come to live 
in England. He may have been a man of humble birth 
who therefore knew the views of the poorer classes, 
attached as a secretary to some noble house. He may 
also have been a priest. 

Here the answer is paragraphed, and the points are 
put as shortly as possible. This should be a charac- 
teristic of all answers to this type of question. The 
historical essay has its place, but these answers should 
not be given in essay form. 

II. Conditions. — The class is working at the period of 
the Norman Conquest. 

Extract : — 

W. M. on the Saxons 

The clergy, contented with a very slight degree of learning, 
could scarcely stammer out the words of the sacraments ; a 
person who understood grammar was an object of wonder and 

of boys. It is scarcely necessary to add that some preliminary 
training is needed before such exercises will be done well. 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 43 

astonishment. The monks mocked the rule of their order by 
their fine vestments, and the use of every kind of food. The 
nobility, given up to luxury and wantonness, went not to 
Church in the morning after the manner of Christians, but 
merely in a careless manner heard matins and masses from a 
hurrying priest in their chambers. . . . Drinking in parties 
was a universal practice, in which occupation they passed 
entire nights as well as days. They were accustomed to eat 
till they became surfeited, and to drink till they were sick. 

W. M. on the Normans 

The Normans are proudly apparelled, delicate in their 
food, but not excessive. They are a race inured to war, and 
can hardly live without it ; fierce in rushing against the enemy, 
and where strength fails of success, ready to use stratagem or 
to corrupt by bribery. They live economically, but in fine 
houses ; envy their equals and wish to excel their superiors, 
plunder their subjects, though they defend them from others ; 
they are faithful to their lords, though a slight offence renders 
them perfidious. They weigh treachery by its chance of 
success, and change their sentiments with money. They are, 
however, the kindest of nations, and esteem strangers worthy 
of equal honour with themselves. They also intermarry with 
their vassals. They revived, by their arrival, the observances 
of religion, which were everywhere grown lifeless in England. 
You might see churches rise in every village, and monasteries 
in the cities, built after a style unknown before ; each wealthy 
man accounted that day lost to him which he had neglected to 
signalise by some magnificent action. 

Exercise. — (a) From internal evidence what may you 
conjecture about the writer ? 

{b) How far can these statements be trusted ? 

Here it does not seem likely that the same writer 
would be equally impartial as regards both the Saxons 
and the Normans ; but William of Malmesbury, born of 
a Norman father and an English mother, and having 
lived in England before the Conquest, is a rather 



44 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

exceptional case, and his credibility affords material for 
an interesting discussion. 

In both these exercises the same result is attained. 
The pupil is compelled (i) to read the document care- 
fully ; (2) is given a definite object for reading it. If he 
has actually done so, it matters little if the result that he 
attains is meagre, or even if it is partially incorrect. He 
is being exercised in the categories of criticism, he has 
completed a school task, and the work thus done makes 
an excellent basis for a lesson upon the subject of the 
extract or upon some topic connected with it. 

III. The next exercise is rather more complex. It 
involves a demand (A) to read and analyse a graphed 
slip, and (B) to illustrate it from an extract in the boys' 
extract book. 

Conditions. — The class have been introduced to the 
enclosure of common lands in the reigns of Henry VIII. 
and Edward VI. 

Extracts : — 

A 

The earth is Thine, O Lord, and all that is contained 
within ; notwithstanding Thou hast given the possession thereof 
unto the children of men to pass over the time of their short 
pilgrimage in this vale of misery ; we heartily pray thee to send 
Thy holy spirit into the hearts of them that possess the grounds, 
pastures, and dwelling-places of the earth ; that they, remem- 
bering themselves to be Thy tenants, may not rack and stretch 
out the rents of their houses and lands, nor yet take unreason- 
able fines and incomes after the manner of covetous worldlings, 
but so let them out to other, that the inhabitants thereof may 
both be able to pay the rents, and also honestly to live, to 
nourish their families, and to relieve the poor. Give them 
grace also to consider that they are but strangers and pilgrims 
in this world, having here no dwelling-place, but seeking one 
to come ; that they, remembering the short continuance of 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 45 

their life, may be content with that that is sufficient, and not 
join house to house, nor couple land to land to the im- 
poverishment of other, but so behave themselves in letting out 
their tenements, lands, and pastures, that after this life they may 
be received into everlasting dwelling-places, through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen. ( The Primer ; or, Book of Private 
Prayer, authorised by King Edward VI.) 

B 

1549. Latimer's First Sermon, in Arber's Reprints, 

p. 38. (Spelling modernised. ) 

. . You landlords, you rent-raisers, I may say you step- 
lords, you unnatural lords, you have for your possessions 
yearly too much. For that heretofore went for xx or xl pound 
by year (which is an honest portion to be had gratis in one 
lordship, of another man's sweat and labour) now is it let for 
fifty or a hundred pound by year. Of this too much cometh 
this monstrous and portentous dearth made by man, notwith- 
standing God doth send us plentifully the fruits of the earth, 
mercifully, contrary unto our deserts ; notwithstanding too much, 
which these rich men have, causeth such dearth, that poor 
men (which live of their labour) can not with the sweat of 
their face have a living, all kinds of victuals is so dear, pigs, 
geese, capons, chickens, eggs, etc. 

These things with other are so unreasonably enhanced. 
And I think verily, that if this continue, we shall at length be 
constrained to pay for a pig a pound. I will tell you my 
lords and masters, this is not for the king's honour. Yet some 
will say : Knowest thou what belongeth unto the king's honour 
better than we ? I answer that the true honour of a king is 
most perfectly mentioned and pointed forth in the Scriptures, 
of which, if ye be ignorant, for lack of time that ye cannot 
read it, albeit, that your counsel be never so politic, yet is it 
not for the king's honour. What his honour meaneth ye 
cannot tell. It is the king's honour that his subjects be led in 
the true religion. That all his prelates and clergy be set 
about their work in preaching and studying, and not to be 
interrupted from their charge. Also it is the king's honour 
that the common wealth be advanced, that the dearth of these 



46 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

foresaid things be provided for, and the commodities of this 
Realm so employed, as it may be to the setting his subjects on 
work, and keeping them from idleness. And herein rested 
the king's honour and his office ; so doing, his account before 
God shall be allowed and rewarded. Furthermore, if the 
king's honour (as some men say) standeth in the great 
multitude of people, then these graziers, enclosers, and rent- 
rearers, are hinderers of the king's honour; for where there 
have been a great many of householders and inhabitants, there 
is now but a shepherd and his dog ; so they hinder the king's 
honour most of all. My lords and masters, I say also, that 
all such proceedings are against the king's honour (as I have 
a part declared before), and as far as I can perceive, do intend 
plainly, to make the yeomanry slavery and the clergy slavery. 
For such works are all singular, private wealth and commodity. 
We of the clergy had too much, but that is taken away, and 
now we have too little. But for mine own part I have no 
cause to complain, for I thank God and the king I have 
sufficient, and God is my judge, I came not to crave of any 
man anything ; but I know them that have too little. There 
lieth a great matter by these appropriations, great reformations 
is to be had in them. I know where is a great market-town 
with divers hamlets and inhabitants, where do rise yearly of 
their labours to the value of fifty pound, and the vicar that 
serveth (being so great a cure) hath but twelve or fourteen 
marks by year, so that of this pension he is not able to buy 
him books, nor give his neighbour drink ; all the great gain 
goeth another way. My father was a yeoman and had no 
lands of his own, only he had a farm of three or four pound 
by year at the uttermost, and hereupon he tilled so much as 
kept half-a-dozen men. He had walk for a hundred sheep, 
and my mother milked thirty kine. He was able and did find 
the king a harness, with himself and his horse, while he came 
to the place that he should receive the king's wages. I can 
remember that I buckled his harness, when he went unto 
Blackheath field. He kept me to school, or else I had not 
been able to have preached before the king's majesty now. 
He married my sisters with five pound or twenty nobles apiece, 
so that he brought them up in godliness and fear of God. 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 47 

He kept hospitality for his poor neighbours. And some 
alms he gave to the poor, and all this did he of the said farm, 
where he that now hath it payeth sixteen pound by year or 
more, and is not able to do anything for his prince, for 
himself, nor for his children, or give a cup of drink to the 
poor. Thus all the enhancing and rearing goeth to your 
private commodity and wealth ; so that where ye had a single 
too much, you have that ; and since the same, ye have 
enhanced the rent, and so have increased another too much ; 
so now ye have double too much, which is two too much. 
But let the preacher preach till his tongue be worn to the 
stumps, nothing is amended. We have good statutes made 
for the common wealth as touching commoners, enclosers ; 
many meetings and sessions, but in the end of the matter 
there cometh nothing forth. Well, well, this is one thing I 
will say unto you, from whence it cometh I know, even from 
the devil. 

Exercise. — (a) From the prayer for landlords, state (1) 
what the landlords had done ; (2) what were the results 
of the landlords' actions. 

(J?) Illustrate the actions and their results from 
Latimer's sermon. 

The following answer might be expected : — 

The landlords (1) had coupled land to land ; (2) had 
increased rents of houses and lands ; (3) had thus 
amassed unreasonable incomes. 

As result, the small farmers were unable (4) to 
nourish their families ; (5) to pay their rents and have 
something over ; (6) to relieve the poor. 

Illustrations from Latimer's Sermon : — 

1. Enclosers are hinderers of king's honour. Instead 
of many householders there are in some places now only 
a shepherd and a dog. 

2. Rents had been raised from £50 to £100. Prices 
of provisions had risen similarly. 



48 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

3. Landlords have double too much. 

4. Latimer's father could educate his son and give his 
daughters a dowry. His successor could do nothing for 
his children. 

5. Latimer's father had a horse and weapons, and 
fought at Blackheath. His successor could do nothing 
for his prince. 

6. Latimer's father kept hospitality for his poor 
neighbours. His successor could not give a cup of drink 
to the poor. 

A few actual answers given by boys to this question 
will indicate both that the exercise is within the compass 
of boys, and that for marking purposes it scatters the 
class. 

(A) 1. The landlords possessing the pastures and 
dwelling-places of the earth had been racking and 
stretching out the rents of their houses and lands. 

2. And had been taking unreasonable fines and 
incomes after the manner of covetous worldlings. 

3. They had not been content, but had joined house 
to house and coupled land to land. 

Results. — 1 and 2. The inhabitants were not able to 
pay the rents or to live honestly or nourish their families 
or to relieve the poor. 

3. They had impoverished others. 

Illustration from Latimer's Sermon : — 

1. This causeth dearth, so that a poor man cannot 
obtain pigs, geese, etc., as everything is so dear. Some 
of the rents had been raised from £4. to £8. His father 
had a small farm and enough land for 100 sheep. With 
this he was able to send his boy to school, give alms 
to the poor, keep a horse and some armour, and so fight 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 49 

for the king. He also married his daughters with £5 
apiece. But now a man that has the same cannot 
nourish his family or do good to the poor or any of 
the former things on account of the raising of the rent 
of the land. 

2. Latimer's father used to pay £$ or £4. rent a year, 
but he who now has it has to pay £16 by year or more. 

3. People had been enclosing the commons, the 
public grazing-grounds. So now people had to hire 
this ground from the large landowners. 

(B) (a) From this prayer it appears that the landlords 
have done these things. 

1. They have racked and stretched out the rents of 
their houses. 

2. They have taken unreasonable fines and incomes 
after the manner of covetous worldlings. 

3. They have joined houses to houses, and they have 
coupled land to land. 

(b) The results of what the landlords have done are 
as follows : — 

1. They have rendered it impossible for their tenants 
to pay their rents and also honestly to live, to nourish 
their families, and to relieve the poor. 

2. They have impoverished their tenants. 
Illustrations from Latimer's Sermon : — 

(a) 1. You have for your possession yearly too much, 
for what heretofore went for £20 or £40 by year now 
is let for £50 or £ 1 00 by year. 

2. These rich men have caused such dearth. 

3. These graziers, enclosers, and rent -rearers are 
hindrances of the king's honour, for where there have 
been a great many householders there is now but a 
shepherd and his dog. 

4 



50 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

{b) I. Poor men cannot with the sweat of their face 
have a living, all kinds of victual are so dear. A farmer 
is not able to do anything for his prince, for himself, 
nor for his children, or give a cup of drink to the poor. 

2. The tenants are so impoverished that they become 
vagrants. 

(C) This boy mistakes the question or is careless, and 
gives the points of the prayer instead of stating what 
the landlords did. 

(a) i. The prayer first of all asks that the landowners 
shall have the Holy Spirit not " to stretch out the rents 
of their houses and lands." A good many of the land- 
owners did do to a large extent. 

2. If they did not increase the rents " the inhabitants 
thereof might be able to both pay the rents and also 
honestly to live." 

3. The third point in the prayer is that the land- 
owners may be content with that which is sufficient, and 
that they may not be trying to get money from the 
poor and make themselves rich. 

(D) This boy mistakes the question and thinks that 
the " results " asked for are the results of the prayer, 
in the efficacy of which he displays a touching confidence. 

(a) What the landlords had been doing. 

1. They had been racking and stretching out the 
rents of their houses and lands. 

2. They had been taking unreasonable fines and 
incomes after the manner of covetous worldlings. 

3. They had not been contented, and they coupled 
house to house and land to land. 

(b) What the results were. 

1. The inhabitants were able to pay rents. 

2. They were able to nourish their families properly. 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 51 

3. They were able to live honestly. 

4. They were also able to relieve the poor people. 

5. They were very content indeed. 

IV. This exercise took ten minutes in class at the 
close of a lesson. It was intended to prepare the way 
for the next history hour. 

Conditions. — The class is doing the beginning of Mary's 
reign. 

Extract : — 

A Speech of Queen Mary's to her Council upon 
her Resolution of restoring Church Lands 

1554. Somers' Tracts, i. 56. 

We have willed you to be called to us, to the intent you 
might hear of me my conscience and the resolution of my 
mind, concerning the lands and possessions, as well of 
monasteries as other churches whatsoever, being now in my 
possession. 

First, I do consider, that the said lands were taken away 
from the churches aforesaid in time of schism, and that by 
unlawful means, such as are contrary both to the law of 
God and of the Church : for which cause my conscience 
doth not suffer me to detain them. And therefore I here 
expressly refuse, either to claim or retain those lands for 
mine ; but with all my heart, freely and willingly, without 
all faction or condition, here and before God, I do surrender 
and relinquish the said lands and possessions, or inheritances 
whatever ; and renounce the same with this mind and purpose, 
that order and disposition thereof may be taken, as shall seem 
best liking to the Pope, or his legate, to the honour of God 
and the wealth of this our realm. And albeit you may object 
to me again, that the state of my kingdom, the dignity thereof, 
and my crown imperial cannot be honourably maintained and 
furnished without the possessions aforesaid ; yet notwithstand- 
ing — and so she had affirmed before, when she was bent upon 
the restitution of the tenths and first-fruits — I set more by the 
salvation of my soul than by ten such kingdoms : and therefore 



52 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

the said possessions I utterly refuse here to hold, after that 
sort and title; and I give most hearty thanks to God, who 
hath given me a husband of the same mind, who hath no 
less good affection in this behalf than I myself. Where- 
fore I charge and command that my chancellor, with whom I 
have conferred my mind in this matter, and you four to resort 
to-morrow together to the legate, signifying to him the premises 
in my name. And give your attendance upon me, for the 
more full declaration of the state of my kingdom, and of the 
aforesaid possessions, according as you yourselves do under- 
stand the matter, and can inform him in the same. 

Exercise. — Read the extract carefully and state (i) 
Whose interests are not considered. (2) Which persons 
would not agree. (3) What comments you think these 
persons would have made upon Queen Mary's speech. 
Some actual answers given by boys : — 

(A) 1. Mary merely mentions her own property. She 
entirely forgets the fact that the land had been given to the 
landowners and gentlemen. 

2. The landowners and gentlemen would have thought 
Mary was doing wrong in giving land back to the Pope. 

3. " Queen Mary considers her own land, but seems to 
forget we have land as well. She thinks it right to give it 
back, but all people do not think alike, and we desire to keep 
our land. Therefore, let Queen Mary give back only the 
land which belongs to her." 

(B) 1. The Queen does not refer to the Church lands that 
have been given away to the barons, large landowners, and 
farmers. She only refers to her own lands. 

2. The barons, landowners, and all other people who had 
been given land by the King. 

3. The landowners would have said that the King had 
rightly given them their land and now it was quite right for 
them to keep it. That they were Protestants and therefore 
did not wish to give land back to the Pope, who was head of 
the Roman Catholic Church. It was not lawful to take lands 
away when they had once been chosen by the Crown. 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 53 

(C) Here is an answer by an exceptionally stupid 
boy : — 

1. The clergy and monasteries. 

2. Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, because they would 
have said the Church of Rome was in schism and always had 
been, and so Mary was in the wrong. 

V. The next exercise gives opportunity for close 
reading, and forms a good introduction to a treatment 
of the Court of High Commission. 

Extracts : — 

(A) Act of Supremacy, 1559 

Most humbly beseech your most excellent Majesty, your 
faithful and obedient subjects, the Lords spiritual and temporal 
and the Commons in this your present Parliament assembled, 
that where in the time of your most dear father of worthy 
memory, King Henry the Eighth, divers good laws and 
statutes were made and established, as well for the utter 
extinguishment and putting away of all usurped and foreign 
powers and authorities out of this your realm ... as also for 
the restoring and uniting to the Imperial Crown of this realm 
the ancient jurisdictions and authorities ... to the same of 
right belonging to the intent that all usurped and foreign power 
and authority, spiritual and temporal, may for ever be clearly 
extinguished, may it please your Highness that it may be 
enacted that no foreign power, spiritual or temporal, shall at 
any time after the last day of this session of Parliament use 
any manner of power within this realm. And may it likewise 
please your Highness that such jurisdiction as hath heretofore 
been lawfully exercised for the reformation of all manner of 
errors, heresies, and schisms be united and annexed to the 
Imperial Crown of this realm, and that you shall have power 
to name and authorise persons to visit, reform, order, correct, 
and amend all such errors, heresies, and schisms . . . and that 
for the more sure observation of the Act, . . . any person offend- 
ing herein, being thereof lawfully convicted and attainted 
according to the due order and course of the Common Laws 



54 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

of this realm, shall forfeit unto your Highness all his goods 
and chattels, and if they be not of the value of twenty pounds 
shall besides the forfeiture suffer imprisonment by the space 
of one whole year. 

(B) Act of Uniformity, 1559 

If any manner of parson, vicar, or other minister refuse to 
use the said Common Prayer in such order and form as they 
be set forth in the said book, and shall be thereof lawfully 
convicted according to the laws of this realm by verdict of 
twelve men, or by his own confession, or by the notorious 
evidence of the fact, he shall lose and forfeit to the Queen's 
Highness for his first offence, the profit of all his spiritual 
benefices coming in on a whole year next after his conviction. 

(C) First Commission, 1559 

We do give our full power and authority to you, or six 
of you ... to inquire into all offences committed contrary 
to the tenor of the said acts, and into all heretical opinions, 
seditious books, conspiracies, and misbehaviours . . . invented 
or set forth against us . . . and you shall have full power 
and authority to award punishment to every offender by fine, 
imprisonment, or otherwise, and to take such order for the 
redress of the same as to your wisdom shall be thought meet 
and convenient 

Per Ipsam Reginam. 

Witness, the Queen at Westminster, 
the 1 9th day of July. 

Exercise. — How far was the Queen empowered by 
the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity (judged from 
the extracts given) to give her commissioners the 
powers granted in extract C ? 

Two answers by boys : — 

(A) It is extremely hard to say whether Elizabeth was 
justified in giving leave to fine and imprison offenders, and 
I myself do not think that it was a justifiable act on her part. 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 55 

In the Act of Supremacy the punishment enacted is that 
" Every person offending therein, being thereof lawfully con- 
victed and attainted according to the due order and course 
of the Common Laws of this realm, shall forfeit ... his goods, 
and . . . suffer imprisonment by the space of one whole 
year." This leave of Elizabeth's had nothing to do with the 
Common Law; it was anything but that. Also the Act of 
Uniformity only said that offenders should be fined, not 
imprisoned. Yet some people might say that Elizabeth's 
act was justified by the words, "And may it please your 
Highness that such jurisdiction as hath heretofore been 
lawfully exercised for the reformation of all manner of errors, 
heresies, and schisms be united and annexed to the Imperial 
Crown of this realm." But I think this is only a preliminary 
statement, and much depends on the meaning of the word 
" lawfully." 

(B) By the Act of Supremacy Elizabeth received power 
to name and authorise persons to visit, reform, order, correct, 
and amend, but for fine and imprisonment a person had 
to be lawfully convicted according to the due order of the 
Common Law. 

By the Act of Uniformity persons who were fined had 
to be "convicted according to the laws of this realm by 
verdict of twelve men." It said nothing about six men 
privately appointed by Elizabeth. 

VI. Henry. V.'s dying instructions give an oppor- 
tunity for making some remarks on character. 

Conditions. — The class have been told that Henry's 
claim to the throne was quite unjustified, and that 
Henry himself when declaring war can hardly have 
thought otherwise. 

Extract : — 

August 1422. Thomas de Elmham, Vita Henrici Quinti, ed. 

Hearne, p. 333. (Latin contemporary.) 

Three days before his death, having summoned into his 
presence the Dukes of Bedford and Exeter and other nobles 
of his household, he spoke tranquilly to them as follows : 



56 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

" It is certain," he said, " that I cannot escape death, which is 
already near at hand. If, therefore, during my reign I have 
ruled otherwise than I ought, or have done any one injustice, 
of which I believe the contrary, as a suppliant I pray for 
pardon. For your good services, especially in these wars, I 
give thanks to you and to all your fellow-soldiers ; for which, 
if death had not prevented me, I intended to reward each 
according to his deserts. I command you to continue the 
wars until peace is made, to which, I declare before God, I 
was drawn neither by the ambitious lust for power, nor for 
vainglory, nor for worldly honour, nor for any other such 
cause, but solely that by pursuing my last claim I might 
obtain at once peace and right. To my brother the Duke of 
Bedford I decree that the custody and government of the 
duchy of Normandy shall be committed until my son reaches 
years of discretion. But the protector and defender of 
England shall be my brother, the Duke of Gloucester. My 
uncle the Duke of Exeter, my Chamberlain, and Hungreford, 
Seneschal of my household, I wish and desire to be in 
attendance on the person of my son. 

Exercise. — What light does this extract throw upon 
(i) Henry's character? (2) His opinion of his brothers? 

The answers to this exercise separate the more clever 
from the less clever boys. The latter boldly state that 
Henry was a liar, and get no marks for the statement ; 
the former point out that it is unlikely that he would lie 
deliberately upon his death-bed and that, although at 
the beginning he cannot have believed in his claim, his 
success in war coupled with his power of self-decep- 
tion must have convinced him of the justice of his 
cause. 

VII. The following exercise similarly compels the 
pupil to consider character closely and at the same time 
lends itself to a revision of back work. 

Conditions. — The class have completed the reign of 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 57 

Henry II., and are acquainted with the leading features 
of his character. 

Extracts : — x 

{a) By Peter of Blois. 

He does not lie idle in his palace like other kings, but 
makes rapid journeys through the provinces, finding out what 
every one is doing. No one is more acute in deliberation ; no 
one has a greater torrent of eloquence. Whenever he has a 
breathing space from his duties and anxieties he occupies him- 
self in private reading, or elaborates some problem in the call 
of an ecclesiastic. Our king is a man of peace, but he is as 
successful in war as he is magnificent in peace. The one 
object of his desires in this world was the peace of his people, 
and this he has given them. No one is kinder to the afflicted, 
or more affable to the poor, and no one made himself more 
insufferable to the proud. As it were in imitation of the 
Divinity his object always was to humble the mighty, to raise 
up the oppressed, and to set in operation continual persecution 
and destruction against those who swelled with pride. 

{b) By Ralph Niger. 

When he came to the throne he appointed slaves, bastards, 
and vagabonds to the chief offices in his kingdom. Illustrious 
men who were accused of crimes of a moral character but 
were otherwise irreproachable he deprived entirely of their 
estates or annihilated them by gradually stealing bits of their 
property. He made bishops and abbots of the servants of his 
households or of the jesters at court. He made an unheard- 
of law about the forests by which those who had committed 
no other breach of law suffered perpetual punishment. He 
prevented men of high position from marrying or giving in 
marriage without his leave, and those who transgressed he 
punished as traitors. He kept for his own use or sold other 
peoples' inheritances. In deciding to which courts cases 
should go he showed a pettifogging spirit, and even sold 
decisions. 

1 Paraphrased from passages quoted by Stubbs, Constitu- 
tional History of England, vol. i. p. 535. 



58 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

Exercise. — Describe Henry's character and show how 
the various elements in it will admit of interpretations 
that differ as widely as the above, according to the 
friendly or hostile disposition of the writer. 

VIII. Exercises in character may easily be made 
more complex. 

Conditions. — The class may have been told some- 
thing about Clarendon, they have some acquaintance 
with Milton's political views, and they know that Eikon 
Basilike was a partisan pamphlet. 

Extracts : — 



1640. Clarendon, History of the Rebellion, 

i. 227. (Before 1672.) 

The Earl of Strafford had for the space of almost six years 
entirely governed Ireland, where he had been compelled, upon 
reason of state, to exercise many acts of power; and had 
indulged some to his own appetite and passion. 

He was a man of too high and severe a deportment, and 
too great a contemner of ceremony, to have many friends at 
court, and therefore could not but have enemies enough. 

He had an enemy more terrible than all the others, and like 
to be more fatal, the whole Scottish nation, provoked by the 
declaration he had procured of Ireland, and some high 
carriage and expressions of his against them in that kingdom. 
So that he had reason to expect as hard measure from such 
popular councils as he saw were like to be in request, as all 
those disadvantages could create towards him. And yet, no 
doubt, his confidence was so great in himself and in the form 
of justice (which he could not suspect would be so totally con- 
founded), that he never apprehended a greater censure than a 
sequestration from all public employments, in which it is 
probable he had abundant satiety : and this confidence could 
not have proceeded (considering the full knowledge he had of 
his judges) but from a proportionable stock, and satisfaction, 
in his own innocence. 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 59 

B 

Eikon Basilike, p. 8. 
(Contemporary.) 

I looked upon my Lord of Strafford as a gentleman whose 
great abilities might make a prince rather afraid than ashamed 
to employ him in the greatest affairs of state. 

For those were pronej to create in him great confidence of 
undertakings, and this was like enough to betray him to great 
errors and many enemies ; whereof he could not but contract 
good store, while moving in so high a sphere and with so 
vigorous a lustre, he must needs, as the sun, raise many 
envious exhalations, which condensed by a popular odium, 
were capable to cast a cloud upon the brightest merit and 
integrity. 

Though I cannot in my judgment approve all he did, 
driven it may be, by the necessities of times and the 
temper of that people, more than led by his own disposition 
to any height and rigour of actions ; yet I could never be con- 
vinced of any such criminousness in him as willingly to expose 
his life to the stroke of justice, and malice of his enemies. 

I never met with a more unhappy conjuncture of affairs 
than in the business of that unfortunate earl ; when between 
my own unsatisfiedness in conscience, and a necessity, as 
some told me, of satisfying the importunities of some people, 
I was persuaded by those that I think wished me well to 
choose rather what was safe than what seemed just, preferring 
the outward peace of my kingdoms with men before that 
inward exactness of conscience before God. 

And, indeed, I am so far from excusing or denying that 
compliance on my part (for plenary consent it was not) to his 
destruction, whom in my judgment I thought not, by any 
clear law, guilty of death, that I never bare any touch of 
conscience with greater regret ; which, as a sign of my repent- 
ance, I have often with sorrow confessed both to God and 
men as an act of so sinful frailty, that it discovered more a 
fear of man than of God, whose name and place on earth no 
man is worthy to bear, who will avoid inconveniences of state 
by acts of so high injustice as no public convenience can 
expiate or compensate. 



60 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

Nor were the crimes objected against him so clear, as after 
a long and fair hearing to give convincing satisfaction to the 
major part of both Houses, especially that of the Lords, of 
whom scarce a third part were present when the bill passed 
that House. And for the House of Commons, many gentlemen, 
disposed enough to diminish my Lord of Strafford's greatness 
and power, yet unsatisfied of his guilt in law, durst not con- 
demn him to die ; who, for their integrity in their votes, were, 
by posting their names, exposed to the popular calumny, 
hatred, and fury, which grew then so exorbitant in their 
clamours for justice (that is to have both myself and the two 
Houses vote and do as they would have us), that many, it is 
thought, were rather terrified to concur with the condemning 
party than satisfied that of right they ought so to do. 

C 

Milton, Eikonoklastes, p. 14. 
(Contemporary.) 

This next chapter is a penitent confession of the king, and 
the strangest, if it be well weighed, that ever was auricular. 
For he repents here of giving his consent, though most 
unwillingly, to the most seasonable and solemn piece of 
justice that had been done of many years in the land : but 
his sole conscience thought the contrary. And thus was the 
welfare, the safety, and within a little, the unanimous demand 
of three populous nations to have attended still on the 
singularity of one man's opinionated conscience ; if men had 
been always so tame and spiritless, and had not unexpectedly 
found the grace to understand, that if his conscience were so 
narrow and peculiar to himself, it was not fit his authority 
should be so ample and universal over others. For certainly 
a private conscience sorts not with a public calling; but 
declares that person rather meant by nature for a private 
fortune. And this also we may take for truth, that he whose 
conscience thinks it sin to put to death a capital offender, will 
as oft think it meritorious to kill a righteous person. But let 
us hear what the sin was that lay so sore upon him, and, as 
one of his prayers given to Dr. Juxon testifies, to the very day 
of his death ; it was his signing the bill of Strafford's execution : 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 61 

a man whom all men looked upon as one of the boldest and 
most impetuous instruments that the king had to advance 
any violent or illegal design. He had ruled Ireland, 
and some parts of England in an arbitrary manner, had 
endeavoured to subvert fundamental laws, to subvert 
parliaments, and to incense the king against them ; he 
had also endeavoured to make hostility between England 
and Scotland : he had counselled the king to call over that 
Irish army of papists, which he had cunningly raised, to 
reduce England, as appeared by good testimony then present 
at the consultation. For which, and many other crimes 
alleged and proved against him in twenty-eight articles, he was 
condemned of high treason by the parliament. The Commons 
by far the greater number cast him ; the Lords, after they had 
been satisfied in a full discourse by the king's solicitor, and 
the opinions of many judges delivered in their house, agreed 
likewise to the sentence of treason. The people universally 
cried out for justice. 

Exercise. — How far were writers of different political 
views in agreement as to the more striking features of 
Strafford's character ? 

IX. Conditions. — The class have just finished the 
battle of Agincourt. 
Extracts : — 



Monstrelet, Chroniques, liv. i., ch. clviii. 
(French contemporary, shortened.) 

The said Duke of Burgundy, from Lagny-sur-Marne, sent 
to Paris to the [French] king and his Council, asking that he 
might enter Paris with all his host for safety ; but the only 
reply vouchsafed to him was that if he would enter unattended, 
the king and his Council would be satisfied, and not otherwise. 
This the Duke of Burgundy would never have done, for he 
knew well that those who advised the king were his mortal 
enemies, and he would on no account trust himself to them. 



62 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

B 

14 16. Jean Juvenal des Ursins, p. 534. (French 

contemporary, shortened. ) 

The Duke of Burgundy then sent very seditious letters to 
many of the "good towns" to gain them over from their 
allegiance to the king. And he sent to Rouen, which suddenly 
declared its allegiance to him. The towns of Rheims, Chalons, 
Troyes, and Auxerre also joyfully submitted themselves, and 
took the cross of St. Andrew, and said, " Long live Burgundy!" 
After their submission they took the men who had formerly 
been the king's officers, and cut off their heads, and robbed 
them of their goods. And to kill a man it was sufficient to 
say : " He is an Armagnac." Similarly, when any were found 
who were known to belong to the faction of the Duke of 
Burgundy, they were punished, and their goods seized. 



1417, 1 41 8. Journal dun Bourgeois de Paris, ed. 

Buchon, p. 625. (French contem- 
porary. ) 

Item, at this time, at the beginning of August, the Duke of 
Burgundy prepared to come to Paris, and he approached, 
subduing [on his way] towns, cities, and castles, and proclaim- 
ing everywhere in the name of the king, and the dauphin, and 
in his own name, that no one should pay taxes ; wherefore the 
governors of Paris conceived such great hatred against him 
that they caused preachers to say that they well knew that he 
wished to be king of France, and that it was through him and 
his advice that the English were in Normandy ; and in every 
street in Paris dwelt spies, who arrested and imprisoned their 
very neighbours ; and no man after he had been arrested 
dared speak about it, for fear of losing his goods or his life. 

[On May 28 the Burgundian forces assaulted Paris. The 
Parisians rose in revolt, and a general massacre took place.] 

Then there was a great commotion in Paris. The people 
took up arms and approached the bands of the Burgundians 
before the soldiers were assembled. Then the new prefect of 
Paris came, and with his own followers, and with the help of 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 63 

the Commons, repulsed the Burgundians, striking down and 
killing a great heap outside the gate of St. Anthony ; and then 
the people, being much incensed against the Burgundians, went 
to all the hostelries in Paris seeking them, and when they 
found one, whatever were his condition, prisoner or free, he 
was led out to the soldiers in the middle of the street, and 
mercilessly slain with great axes and other weapons. And, 
when they were all lying dead, the women and children, having 
no power to do them further ill, cursed them as they passed, 
saying, " Dogs of traitors, you fare better than you deserve." 
And you could not find a single street of any importance in 
Paris where there had not been some massacre, nor could you 
walk a hundred paces for the dead that were there. And on 
that Sunday, the 29th day of May, there were slain in the 
streets of Paris, by the sword and other weapons, 522 men, 
without counting those slain within the houses. 

Exercise. — From the extracts quoted estimate the 
effect produced by the campaign of Agincourt upon the 
relations of political parties in France. 

Two answers by boys who had not much experience 
of this kind of work : — 

(A) Henry's successes in France do not seem to have made 
the rival parties in France join together, as they should have 
done, against a common enemy. The French king was not 
able to keep his subjects under control. This is shown by 
the massacre which took place upon the Duke of Burgundy's 
entry into Paris. Men went about doing just whatever they 
pleased. 

(B) In France at this period there were two rival parties : 
the Burgundians and the Orleanists or Armagnacs, of whom 
the latter at present were on the king's side. The Duke of 
Burgundy was afraid that his cause might be harmed, and so 
sent to Paris to ask for protection ; this being refused unless 
he came alone, he resolved on another plan, viz. : He saw that 
the king, and therefore his rivals also, were weak on account 
of the recent wars, so he determined to storm Paris and capture 
the king. However, he failed in doing this, and his force was 



64 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

badly mauled, over 500 being killed in the streets of Paris. 
Thus these campaigns caused civil wars and other bloodshed 
besides what they entailed themselves. 

An answer by a boy of the same type and age (13-14) 
who had worked for a year at exercises of this kind : — 

(C) 1. "Those who advised the king were his (the Duke 
of Burgundy's) mortal enemies " still after the campaign of 
Agincourt. In other words, pressing danger did not, as might 
have been thought, unite them. 

2. The disorganisation seems indeed to have increased; 
for a number of towns in important positions in France joined 
Burgundy. The feuds became even more brutal ; each side 
killed the other whenever they could. 

3. But in Paris the Armagnacs still seem to have been 
able to appeal to the patriotism of their followers, and their 
statement that Burgundy had invited the English over may 
have been largely responsible for the massacre of 9th May. 

It will be noticed that C shows a considerable advance 
on B and A in both conciseness and appositeness. 

X. The next exercise is a harder one, suitable for 
boys who have worked for some years on these lines. 
A full discussion in class of the points to look out for 
might be needed before the pupils are set to work upon 
it ; indeed this remark applies to all exercises of this 
kind. The most suitable problem may be made unsuit- 
able for a given class by the omission of sensible pre- 
cautions or the withholding of necessary data. 

Conditions. — The class have a good knowledge of the 
legislation of Edward I.'s reign. 

Extract : — 

Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. i. p. 394. 

To all the faithful of Christ to whom the present writing 
shall come, Richard by the divine permission abbot of Peter- 
borough and the Convent of the same place, eternal greeting 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 65 

in the Lord. Let all know that we have manumitted and 
liberated from all yoke of servitude William, the son of 
Richard of Wythington, whom previously we have held as our 
born bondman, with his whole progeny and all his chattels, 
so that neither we nor our successors shall be able to require 
or exact any right or claim in the said William, his progeny 
or his chattels. But the same William with his whole progeny 
and all his chattels will remain free and quit and without dis- 
turbance, exaction, or any claim on the part of us or our 
successors by reason of any servitude, forever. We will, 
moreover and concede that he and his heirs shall hold the 
messuages, land, rent and meadows in Wythington, which his 
ancestors held from us and our predecessors, by giving and 
performing the fine for giving his daughter in marriage, that 
he shall have and hold these for the. future from us and our 
successors freely, quietly, peacefully, and hereditarily, by 
paying thence to us and our successors yearly 40s. sterling, 
at the four terms of the year. And if it shall happen that the 
said William or his heirs shall die at any time without an 
heir, the said messuage, land, rents and meadows with their 
appurtenances shall return fully and completely to us and our 
successors. Nor will it be allowed to the said William or his 
heirs, the said messuage, land, rents, meadows or any part of 
them to give, sell, alienate, mortgage, or in any way encumber 
by which the said messuage, land, rents and meadows should 
not return to us and our successors in the form declared 
above. 

Exercise. — From the internal evidence to give the 
approximate date of this deed. 

The key to the answer is to be found in the last 
paragraph. 

Nor will it be allowed to the said William or his heirs, the 
said messuage, land, rents, meadows or any part of them to 
give, sell, alienate, mortgage, or in any way encumber by which 
the said messuage, land, rents and meadows should not return 
to us and our successors as in the form declared above. 

This clause would be unnecessary after the Statute of 

5 



66 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

Quia Emptores (1290). It attempts to do privately 
what later on was done by the Statute. The document 
may therefore be ascribed to a date earlier than 1290. 
Its date is actually 1278. 

XI. The next exercise introduces the class to the 
value of letters for evidential purposes. If written a 
cceur ouvert they may be taken as expressing the real 
views of the writer, who none the less may be in error 
as to his facts. In many cases, however, the sentiments 
expressed have to be discounted. 

Conditions. — The class are doing the reign of Elizabeth, 
and have reached the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. 
They have a good knowledge of the general political 
situation. 

Extract : — 

My dear Brother, — I would you knew (though not felt) 
the extreme dolor that overwhelms my mind, for that miserable 
accident which (far contrary to my meaning) hath befallen. 
I have now sent this kinsman of mine whom ere now it hath 
pleased you to favour, to instruct you truly of that which is 
too irksome for my pen to tell you. I beseech you that as 
God and many more know, how innocent I am in this case : 
so you will believe me that if I had directed ought I would 
have abided by it. I am not so base-minded that fear of any 
living creature or prince should make me afraid to do that 
were just, or make me to deny the same. I am not of so 
base a lineage, nor carry so vile a mind. But, as not to 
disguise, fits not a king, so will I never dissemble my actions, 
but cause them show even as I meant them. Thus assuring 
yourself of me, that as I know this was deserved, yet if I had 
meant it I would never lay it on others' shoulders ; no more 
will I not damnify myself, that thought it not. 

The circumstance it may please you to have of this bearer. 
And for your part, think you have not in the world a more 
loving kinswoman, nor a more dear friend than myself; nor 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 67 

any that will watch more carefully to preserve you and your 
estate. And who shall otherwise persuade you, judge them 
more partial to others than you. And thus in haste I leave 
to trouble you : beseeching God to send you a long reign. — 
Your most assured loving sister and cousin, 

Elizab. R. 
The 14th of February 1586. 

Exercise. — (1) Make a brief analysis of the letter. 
(2) State which of the points in it express the real views 
of the writer and which do not. Give your reasons. 

Here various opinions might be held as to the first 
part of the letter, but there is no reason to believe that 
the second part is not a true expression of sentiment. 

XII. Accounts of battles, especially if two con- 
flicting accounts can be found, give abundant oppor- 
tunities for the comparison of conflicting testimony. 

Conditions. — The class are reading the reign of 
Edward II., and are about to have a lesson on his Scotch 
campaign. They have maps of England and Scotland, 
but not a plan of the battle of Bannockburn. 

Extracts : — 

A 

1 3 14. Translated from Latin of 

Chronicle of Lanercost, 225-228. 
{Circ. 1345.) 

Now before the festival of the Nativity of St. John the 
Baptist, the king collected the whole of his army into one host, 
and with the aforesaid array drew nigh to the castle of Stirling 
to raise the siege, and to fight with the Scots who were 
assembled there in force ; and on St. John's Eve after dinner 
the king's army came to Torr Wood ; and when it was heard 
that the Scots were in the wood, the king's vanguard, led by 
Lord Clifford, wished to surround the wood, to prevent the 
Scots from escaping by flight. Now the Scots suffered this, 
till the English were completely cut off from their friends, and 



68 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

then they showed themselves and charged that vanguard; 
some they slew and the rest they put to flight, and from that 
hour there was fear among the English, and greater boldness 
on the part of the Scots. 

On the following day — a dark day for England, unlucky 
and ill-omened — when either side was preparing for battle, the 
English archers advanced in front of their line, and were met 
by Scottish archers. On either side some were wounded and 
some killed ; but the English archers soon put the others to 
flight. Now when the two armies had drawn very near 
together, all the Scots knelt down and said a "paternoster," 
and commended themselves to God, and asked help of heaven ; 
and thereafter they boldly marched against the English. 
They had so arranged their host that two lines were in front 
of the third, side by side, in such a way that neither marched 
in front of the other ; and the third line was in the rear, and 
there was Robert. Now when both armies met and the 
English chargers galloped against the Scottish spears, as 
against a thick wood, there arose an exceeding great and 
terrible noise from the breaking of spears, and from chargers 
mortally wounded ; and so they halted for a space. But the 
English in the rear could not reach the Scots because of their 
vanguard in between, and they could in no way help them- 
selves, and so nothing remained but to arrange for flight. 
And this account I heard from a credible witness who was 
there present and saw what happened. In that vanguard were 
slain the Earl of Gloucester, Sir Robert Clifford, Sir John 
Comyn, Sir Payen de Typetot, Sir Edmond de Mauley, and 
many other nobles — to make no mention of the infantry who 
fell in great numbers. Moreover, another misfortune occurred 
to the English, because, after crossing a great pit, into which 
the tide flows, and which is called the Bannockburn, they fell 
into confusion and wished to retreat ; but many nobles and 
others, on account of the press, fell in with their horses ; some 
with great difficulty escaped, but many could never get out of 
the pit ; and so the name of Bannockburn was familiar to the 
English for many years to come. 

Now the king and Sir Hugh Despenser, who after Piers 
Gaveston was his chief favourite, and Sir Henry Beaumont, 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 69 

together with many other horse and foot, with a Scottish 
knight for guide, who knew by what route they could escape, 
to their everlasting shame fled like cravens towards the castle 
of Dunbar. Some, however, more tardy in their flight, were 
slain by the Scots, who followed hard in pursuit. At Dunbar 
the king, with some of his more immediate followers, put out in 
a boat towards Berwick, leaving all the rest to their fate, but 
they arrived safe and sound in England in due course. . . . 
After this victory Robert Bruce was unanimously called king 
of Scotland, because he had won Scotland by force of arms. 

B 

Translated from Latin of Baker of Swinbrook, 146. 
{Circ. 1358.) 

On that night (June 23) you might have seen the English 
host deep in their cups, wassailing and toasting immoderately ; 
on the other hand the Scots silently kept the vigil fasting, 
their every thought centred in their desire for their country's 
freedom ; and this desire, though ungrounded, was vehement 
and equal to all risks. On the morrow the Scots seized the 
most advantageous position, and dug pits three feet deep and 
as wide across, stretching along the whole line from the right 
wing to the left ; these they covered over with a light frame- 
work of twigs and osiers, that is to say with hurdles ; and then 
over the top they strewed turf and grass ; so that men could 
cross them on foot with care, but they could not support the 
weight of cavalry. In accordance with their royal leader's 
commands none of the Scots were mounted, and their army, 
drawn up in the usual divisions, was posted in solid formation 
at no great distance from this pit which had been warily, not 
to say craftily, set between themselves and the English. On 
the other side, as the English army advanced from the west, 
the rising sun flashed upon their golden shields and polished 
helms. Their vanguard consisted of light horse and heavy 
cavalry, all unconscious of the Scots' pit with its cunningly 
contrived light covering ; in the second division were men-at- 
arms and archers held in reserve to give chase to the enemy ; 
in the third was the king with the bishops and other church- 



70 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

men, and among them the brave knight Hugh Spenser. The 
cavalry of the vanguard advanced against the enemy, and fell 
headlong as their horses stumbled into the ditch with their 
fore-feet caught in the broken hurdles ; and when these fell 
through, the enemy came up and slew them, giving quarter 
only to the rich for ransom. . . . And in this disaster some 
were slain by our archers who had not had a proper position 
assigned to them, but formerly stood in the rear of the men- 
at-arms, whereas now they take up their position on the flank. 
When they saw the Scots fiercely attack those who had fallen 
into the ditch, some aimlessly aimed their arrows into the 
air, on the chance of falling in the joints of the enemy's 
armour, and some shot straight at the Scots and hit a few of 
them in the breast, but at the some time struck many more of 
the English in the back. So came to nothing the pomp of 
the day before, for the king with the bishops and De Spenser 
took the precaution of flight. 

Exercise. — To draw a plan of the battle of Bannock- 
burn from the two accounts. 

For a certain stage it would be well to ask the pupils 
to draw three maps : (i) of the battle as described in 
extract A ; (2) of the battle as described in extract B ; 
(3) a combination of the two. 

1. The boys know the position of Stirling, and they 
realise roughly from which direction the English are 
marching. They should consequently be able to 
determine the position of Torr Wood as south of Stirling 
and on the line of march of the English army. The 
arrangement of the Scotch army can be gathered, as also 
the disadvantageous disposition of the English. It is 
not difficult to infer that the Bannockburn would be 
between the opposing parties, as the Scotch % would 
certainly draw up their forces on the side away from the 
English. We thus get the following plan : — 



R 


O STIRLING CASTLE 
ROBERT 




SCOTTISH 


ARMY 


BANNOCKBURN 






ISH ARMY 
TORR WOOD 




tMftL 







2. In this account are given the pits dug by the 
Scotch, and a more detailed version of the position of the 
English. It also appears, from the statement that " the 
English army advanced from the west," that Torr Wood 
may have to be shifted westward. 



SCOTTISH ARMY 



OOOOOOOOOOOOOO pits 

*te AL * y 

AN °BlSHo£ AT A*M S 




*JK*JUKA TORR WOOD 



72 



TEACHING OF HISTORY 



3. The two plans can now be combined, giving the 
following result : — 



O STIRLING CASTLE 
ROBERT 
SCOTTISH ARMY 



OOOOOOOOOOOOO PITS 
R. BAN NOCK BURN 







4ty£ 



&JkAJI'~-*..& TORR WOOD 



B <i N s *rA* Ms 



4. Finally the accepted plan of the battle may be 
placed on the blackboard and copied into the boys' 
notebooks. 

XIII. The following exercise is of a similar kind, but 
considerably harder. The battle described is Poitiers. 

Extracts: — 



1356. Translated from Latin of Baker of Swinbrook, 7. 

{Circ. 1358.) 

The prince perceived that there was a hill on his flank, set 
round with hedges and ditches, but open towards the centre ; 
on the one side was pasture land and thick scrub, on the other 
vineyards ; the rest was ploughland ; and it was upon the 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 73 

ploughed crest of this hill that he imagined the French host 
lay. Between us and the hill was a broad steep valley, and 
a marsh with a stream running through it. The prince's 
division with the baggage waggons crossed the stream at a 
narrow ford, and leaving the valley got across the intervening 
hedges and ditches, and took possession of the hill, where he 
was concealed by the nature of the ground among the thickets, 
while at the same time commanding the enemy. The ground 
occupied by our first and second divisions was separated from 
the open space held by the French by a long hedge and ditch, 
one end of which stretched down to the marsh mentioned 
above. The marsh end of the slope was held by the Earl of 
Warwick, the leader of the van. At the top of the long hedge 
there was an open break or gap made by the harvest waggons ; 
and a stone's throw distant was our rearguard, under the Earl 
of Salisbury. 

The enemy seeing the prince's banner just displayed and 
then suddenly moved forward and then, owing to the hill in 
between, removed from their sight altogether, thought that he 
was making off, in spite of the protests of Douglas of Scotland 
and the Marshal of Claremont that this was not the case ; 
accordingly they begin the advance. ... In the meantime, 
Claremont, thinking to get through the break in the hedge 
and encompass our vanguard in the rear, fell in with the Earl 
of Salisbury, who, seeing Claremont approach, shrewdly 
suspected his intention ; and so the commander of our rear- 
guard, purposing to seize the gap with all haste and head off 
the enemy's passage, was constrained to sustain the first 
attack. Then began a terrible struggle between the men-at- 
arms, fighting with spears, swords, and axes. Nor were the 
archers failing in their duty, but lying in safe entrenchments 
and shooting from above the ditch and over the hedge they 
did more execution than the men-at-arms ; and continuous 
showers of bolts were discharged by the cross-bowmen. 

The Earl of Oxford now came up from the prince's division 
and had the archers deployed on to the enemy's flank, with 
orders to shoot at the hindquarters of their horses ; and by 
this means the wounded horses reared and threw their riders, 
and galloping back to their own side did no small harm to 



74 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

their masters, who had devised quite another scheme. . . . 
Thereupon 

[after the defeat of the enemy's first line] 

our men retired to order their ranks and our vanguard and 
middle division joined forces. 

Immediately the French second line advances, under the 
king's eldest son, the Dauphin. ... It soon becomes a hand- 
to-hand engagement, and every man for his own life strives to 
deal death to his foe. And although this division offered us 
a more stubborn resistance than the former, yet, after a great 
number on their side had been slain, they made an honourable 
retreat. 

[The first and second line being disposed of, the French king 
advances in person to the attack.] 

Then the prince ordered his standard-bearer, Sir Walter 
Woodland, to advance against the foe ; and with a few fresh 
men he went to meet the king's great army. . . . Then a 
formidable body of cross-bowmen with thick clouds of bolts 
darken the air, that now resounds with the deadly hail of 
arrows shot by the English, in the frenzy of despair. More- 
over, ashen darts are thrown at the enemy from long range ; 
but the dense mass of the French in close order protect 
themselves with shields locked together and keep off the 
missiles ; thus the archers had emptied their quivers in vain 
and armed only with swords and bucklers must attack troops 
in heavy armour, for they are resolved to sell life dearly. 

[When the prince is making his last desperate stand, the 
Captal de Buch takes the enemy in the rear.] 

. . . Here they find a stout and stubborn resistance. The 
English fall to, so do the French ; their king, albeit of 
youthful years yet, performs great feats ; but at length, by a 
swift turn of fortune's wheel, the Prince of Wales dashes upon 
the foe, and breaking their pride, spares the vanquished, and 
takes the king prisoner. 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 75 



B 

1356. Froissart, cc. 160-166. 

(136973O 

On the Sunday the French king called to him the Lord 
Eustace Ribemont, the Lord John of Landas, and the Lord 
Richard of Beaujeu, and said to them : " Sirs, ride on before 
to see the dealing of the Englishmen, and advise well what 
number they be and by what means we may fight with them, 
either a-foot or a-horseback." These three knights rode forth, 
and the king was on a white courser, and said to his men : 
" Sirs, among you when ye be at Paris, at Chartres, at Rouen, 
or at Orleans, then ye do threat the Englishmen and desire to 
be in arms out against them. Now ye be come thereto ; I 
shall now show you them ; now show forth your evil will that 
ye bear them, and revenge your displeasures and damages 
that they have done you, for without doubt we shall fight with 
them." Such as heard him said : " Sir, in God's name so be 
it ; that would we see gladly." 

Therewith the three knights returned again to the king, who 
demanded of them tidings. Then Sir Eustace of Ribemont 
answered for all and said : " Sir, we have seen the English- 
men ; by estimation they be two thousand men of arms and 
four thousand archers and fifteen hundred others. Howbeit 
they be in a strong place, and as far as we can imagine they 
are in one battle ; howbeit they be wisely ordered, and along 
the way they have fortified strongly hedges and bushes ; one 
part of their archers are along by the hedge, so that none can 
go nor ride that way, but must pass by them, and that way 
must ye go an ye purpose to fight with them. In this hedge 
there is but one entry and one issue by which four horsemen 
may ride abreast. At the end of this hedge, where no man 
can go nor ride, there be men of arms afoot and archers before 
them in manner of a harrow, so that they will not be lightly 
discomfited." "Well," said the king, "what will ye then 
counsel us to do ? " Sir Eustace said : " Sir, let us be all 
afoot, except three hundred men of arms, well horsed, of the 
best in your host and most hardiest, to the intent that they 
break somewhat and open up the archers ; and then let your 



76 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

battles follow on quickly afoot and so fight with their men of 
arms hand to hand. This is the best advice that I can give 
you : if any other think any other way better, let him speak." 
The king said : " Thus shall it be done." 

[On the eve of battle the Cardinal of Perigord came to the 
French king to try and arrange terms of peace ; nothing came 
of it, for the terms he was allowed to offer the English were 
rejected.] 

That night the Frenchmen took their ease; they had 
provision enough, and the Englishmen had great default ; they 
could get no forage, nor could they depart thence without 
danger of their enemies. That Sunday the Englishmen made 
great dykes and hedges about their archers to be the more 
stronger ; and on the Monday in the morning the prince and 
his company were ready apparelled as they were before, and 
about the sun-rising in like manner were the Frenchmen. 

When the prince saw that he should have battle he said to 
his men : " Now, sirs, though we be but a small company, as 
in regard to the puissance of our enemies, let us not be 
ashamed therefor ; for the victory lieth not in the multitude 
of people, but where God will send it. If it fortune that the 
journey be ours, we shall be the most honoured people of all 
the world ; and if we die in our right quarrel, I have the king, 
my father, and brethren, and also ye have good friends and 
kinsmen; these shall revenge us. Therefore, sirs, for God's 
sake, I require you do your devoirs this day ; for if God be 
pleased and Saint George, this day ye shall see me a good 
knight." These words and such other that the prince spoke 
comforted all his people. . . . 

Then the battle began on all parts, and the battles of the 
marshals of France approached, and they set forth that were 
appointed to break the array of the archers. They entered 
a-horseback into the way where the great hedges were on 
both sides set full of archers. As soon as the men of arms 
entered, the archers began to shoot on both sides, and did 
slay and hurt horses and knights, so that the horses when 
they felt the sharp arrows would in no wise go forward, but 
drew aback and shied and took on so fiercely, that many of 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 77 

them fell on their masters, so that for press they could not 
rise again ; insomuch that the marshals' battle could never 
come at the prince. Certain knights and squires that were 
well horsed passed through the archers, and thought to approach 
to the prince, but they could not. . . . The battle of the 
marshals began to disorder by reason of the shot of the archers 
with the aid of the men of arms, who came in among them 
and slew of them, and did what they list. ... So within a 
short space the marshals' battles were discomfited, for they 
fell one upon another and could not go forth; and the 
Frenchmen that were behind and could not get forward 
recoiled back and came on the battle of the Duke of Normandy, 
which was great and thick and on foot ; but anon they began 
to open behind ; for when they knew that the marshals' battle 
was discomfited they took their horses and departed, he that 
might best. Also they saw a rout of Englishmen coming 
down a little mountain a-horseback, and many archers with 
them, who brake in on the side of the duke's battle. True to 
say the archers did their company that day great advantage ; 
for they shot so thick that the Frenchmen wist not on what 
side to take heed, and little by little the Englishmen won 
ground on them. 

And when the men of arms of England saw that the 
marshals' battle was discomfited, and that the duke's battle 
began to disorder and open, they leapt then on their horses, 
which they had ready by them ; then they assembled together 
and cried : " Saint George ! Guienne ! " and the Lord Chandos 
said to the prince : " Sir, take your horse and ride forth ; this 
journey is yours ; God is this day in your hands ; get us to 
the French king's battle, for there lieth all the sore of the 
matter. I think verily by his valiantness he will not fly ; I 
trust we shall have him by the grace of God and St. George, 
so he be well fought withal ; and, sir, I heard you say that 
this day I should see you a good knight." The prince said : 
" Let us go forth ; ye shall not see me this day return back ; 
advance, banner, in the name of God and of St. George." 

Then the prince and his company dressed them on the 
battle of the Duke of Athens, constable of France. There was 
many a man slain and cast to the earth. As the Frenchmen 



78 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

fought in companies they cried : " Mountjoy ! Saint Denis ! " 
and the Englishmen " Saint George ! Guienne ! " . . . When 
the Duke of Normandy's battle saw the prince approach they 
thought to save themselves, more than 800 spears that struck 
no stroke that day. . . . Then the king's battle came on the 
Englishmen ; there was a sore fight, and many a great stroke 
given and received. . . . On the French side King John was 
that day a full right good knight ; if the fourth part of his men 
had done their devoirs as well as he did, the journey had been 
his by all likelihood. Howbeit they were all slain and taken 
that were there, except a few that saved themselves, that were 
with the king. . . . Thus this battle was discomfited, and it was 
in the fields of Maupertuis two leagues from Poitiers, on the 
twenty-second day of September the year of our Lord 1356. 

Exercises. — 1. Analyse both descriptions of the battle 
and make a brief statement of the sequence of events. 

2. In what respects do the accounts agree? 

3. Draw a plan of the battle. 

4. Compare Baker of Swinbrook's manner of narration 
with that of Froissart. 

The sequences of events may be tabulated as follows : — 
Baker of Swinbrook Froissart 

1. The Prince crosses the stream 1. The French cavalry advance to 

and takes possession of a hill. break the array of English 

2. The French advance, and Clare- archers. 

mont engages the rearguard. 2. The archers shoot at the French 

3. The Earl of Oxford deploys the horse and drive them back. 

archers on the French flank 3. The French immediately behind 

to shoot at the horses' hind- them cannot get forward, and 

quarters. recoil on the Duke of Nor- 

4. The French first line is defeated. mandy's foot-soldiers. 

5. The Dauphin advances with the 4. Some English horse and archers 

second line and is defeated. take the enemy on the flank. 

6. The French King advances. 5. The Prince in front breaks 

7. The English advance again, but through. 

make no impression on the 6. The French King's battalion 
French. advances, and makes a brave 

8. An English battalion takes the stand, but is destroyed. 

enemy in the rear. 

9. The Prince breaks through in 

front. 






DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 79 

A careful comparison of these two sequences brings 
out many points of interest, and gives an opportunity for 
discussing the great difficulty of getting an accurate 
account of any movements that are on a large scale. 

XIV. An unparagraphed statute frequently affords 
a good exercise in analysis. 

In the following exercise it needs close reading on the 
part of the pupil, if no point is to be missed. 

Conditions. — The boys have read of the Black Death 
and the consequent scarcity of labour. 

Extract : — 

1350-51. Statutes, i. 311. 

. . . Carters, ploughmen, drivers of the plough, shepherds, 
swineherds, and all other servants shall take liveries and wages, 
accustomed in the twentieth year of the present king's reign, 
or four years before, so that in the country where wheat was 
wont to be given, they shall take for the bushel ten pence, or 
wheat at the will of the giver, till it be otherwise ordained. 
And they shall be hired to serve for a whole year, or by other 
usual terms, and not by the day ; and none shall pay in the 
time of haymaking but a penny the day; and a mower of 
meadows for the acre five pence, or by the day five pence; 
and reapers of corn in the first week of August two pence, 
and in the second, three pence, and so till the end of August, 
and less in the country where less was wont to be given, 
without meat or drink or other courtesy to be demanded, 
given, or taken ; and all workmen shall bring openly in their 
hands to the merchant towns their instruments, and there 
shall be hired in a common place and not private. 

None shall take for the threshing of a quarter of wheat or 
rye over two pence, and the quarter of barley, beans, peas, and 
oats over one penny if so much were wont to be given ; and 
the said servants shall be sworn two times in the year to hold, 
and do these ordinances ; and none of them shall go out of 
the town where he dwelleth in the winter to serve the summer, 
if he may serve in the same town. . . . 



80 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

Carpenters, masons, and tilers, and other workmen of 
houses, shall not take by the day for their work, but in manner 
as they were wont, that is to say : A master carpenter three 
pence and another two pence ; a master mason four pence 
and other masons three pence ; and their servants one penny. 
Tilers three pence and their knaves one penny, and other 
coverers of fern and straw three pence and their knaves one 
penny. Plasterers and other workers of mudwalls, and their 
knaves, by the same manner, without meat or drink ; that is 
from Easter to Michaelmas ; and from that time less, according 
to the rate and discretion of the justices, which shall be thereto 
assigned. 

Exercise. — Make an analysis of the statute, and state 
the reason for each clause. State also of which of the 
clauses the bailiff of a farm would have approved. 

Here the clauses work out as follows : — (i) The value 
of wheat fixed if used for payment of labourers. 

(2) Hiring to be for the year and not for the day. 

(3) Scale of wages for reapers and mowers. (4) No 
perquisites to be given. (5) Hiring to be in public. 
(6) Scale of wages for threshers. (7) Migration of town 
labourers to the country in summer forbidden. (8) Scale 
of wages for carpenters, masons, and the craftsmen 
engaged in house-building and repairing. 

The commentary asked for needs a good deal of 
thought, and implies a thorough understanding of the 
situation. 

XV. Shortly after half-term certain distinct symp- 
toms appear in most middle forms. The cleverer 
boys begin to leave the weaker boys behind, and in 
consequence the class becomes ragged. A few weak 
boys who have been suffering from a prevailing epidemic 
return to school after missing a fortnight's work, thus 
making matters worse. Many boys have become listless 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 81 

and bored with their work, the end of term is still too 
far distant for the prospect of examination to give a 
fictitious stimulus, and the whole class seems as heavy 
as lead on the master's hands. It is now with a weak 
teacher that signs of disorder appear, and that in general 
it is well to pull the class together by a stiff dose of 
written work. 

At this juncture an exercise of the following kind is 
useful. The boys are asked to read a number of extracts 
carefully, and to write a brief connected narrative from 
them. The exercise here suggested might well occupy 
a whole period of preparation, in which the boys would 
make notes, and a period in class during which they 
would write out their narrative. 

Exercise. — Give a brief account of Wyclif s views, and 
show to what extent his opinion of certain classes of the 
clergy was shared by contemporary writers. 

Extracts : — 

a; 

1377. Translated from Latin of Walsingham, 

Hist. Angl. i. 324. (1394.) 

About the same time there arose in the University of 
Oxford a Northerner called Master John Wyclif, a doctor in 
divinity, who publicly held in the schools and elsewhere mis- 
taken and heretical opinions, contrary to the holding of the 
Catholic Church, and especially bitter against the monks and 
other landed churchmen. And that he might the more care- 
fully glose his heresy and most speciously extend it, he gathered 
unto him workers of iniquity — to wit, friends and associates of 
one school abiding in Oxford and elsewhere ; and these wore 
russet gowns, for a token of greater perfection, and walked 
barefooted, to spread their heresies among the people and 
preach them openly and even publicly in their sermons. 

And among other things these were the opinions with 
which they were primed : that the Church of Rome is not 

6 



82 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

the head of all the Churches, more than any other single 
Church, and that no greater power was granted to Peter by 
Christ than to any other apostle ; that the pope has no greater 
power in the keys of the Church than any one else in the 
order of the priesthood ; that temporal lords may, with law 
and approval, deprive a bankrupt Church of its property . . . ; 
that the Gospel is a sufficient rule of life for any Christian, 
and that all the other rules of the Saints, to which divers men 
of religion conform, add no more perfection to the Gospel 
than doth whitewash to a wall. . . . 

These and many other errors, to the great jeopardy of 
our Faith, were so spread by the said seducers that lords and 
magnates of the realm, and many of the people supported 
them in their preaching and favoured those who preached 
these errors ; doubtless chiefly for this reason, because in their 
teaching they gave laymen power to rob churchmen of their 
temporal possessions. 

But when these propositions and ravings had been exposed 
and examined before the pope, with his own hand he con- 
demned twenty-three of them as heretical and idle ; and he 
sent bulls to the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of 
London that they should have the said John arrested and 
carefully examined on the aforesaid propositions. Whereupon 
the archbishop ... in the presence of the Duke of Lancaster 
and Lord Henry Percy, enjoined silence on him and all others 
with regard to these matters. . . . And so both himself and 
his followers were silent for some time. But at length, by the 
countenance of the temporal lords, they afterwards ventured 
to take up again and spread among the laity the same opinions, 
and others much worse than those they spread before. Now 
on that day on which the foregoing had been transacted at 
London, on account of some insult uttered by the Duke of 
Lancaster to the bishop of London, the Londoners forthwith 
rose as one man, seized their arms, and purposed to put him 
to death. But the bishop would in no way suffer this, and 
had he not opposed their intent at that time, they would have 
burnt the Savoy, the duke's mansion, in their rage. . . . 
Among other insults offered to the duke, they reversed and 
burnt his coat of arms in the streets. 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 83 

B 

Translated from Latin of Henry Knighton, ii. 151. 
{Circ. 1395.) 

At that time lived Master John Wyclif, Rector of the parish 
of Lutterworth, in the county of Leicester, the most dis- 
tinguished divine of the day. In learning he was considered 
second to none, in scholarship without a peer. He took 
especial pains to gain the mastery over other men's minds by 
the subtlety of his knowledge and the depth of his intellect, and 
to pervert them from their belief. It is said that he brought 
into the Church many opinions repudiated by orthodox divines, 
as will be partly shown in due course. Just as Christ 
had John the Baptist for his forerunner, so this man had 
John Ball, who prepared his ways before him in such doctrines 
and alarmed many by his teaching. The Gospel, which our 
Lord gave into the hands of the clergy and doctors of the 
Church, that they should minister to laymen and the weaker 
brethren, according to the demands of the season and the 
needs of individuals, was translated by this Master John 
Wyclif from Latin into English — speech of Angles not Angels ; 
wherefore through him the Gospel is made common and more 
open to laymen and women who know how to read than it is 
wont to be to the clergy, till now the lettered and cultured 
class ; and so the pearl of the Gospel is cast abroad and 
trampled on by swine, and thus what is wont to be dear to 
clergy and laity is now considered a subject of mirth to both 
alike, and the jewel of the clergy is turned into a laughing- 
stock of the laity, so that what formerly had been a supreme 
privilege to the clergy is now for all time the common property 
of the laity. 

C 

John Wyclif {Fifty Heresies and Errors of Friars), 
S.E.W. iii. 366-401 (spelling modernised). (1384.) 

Also friars say that it is needful to leave the command- 
ment of Christ, of giving of alms to poor feeble men, to 
poor crooked men, to poor blind men, and to bedridden 
men, and give this alms to hypocrites that feign them 
holy and needy when they be strong in body and have 



84 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

overmuch riches, both in great houses and precious clothes, 
in great feasts and many jewels and treasure ; and thus 
they slay poor men with their false begging, since they 
take falsely from them their worldly goods, by which they 
should sustain their bodily life ; and deceive rich men in their 
alms and maintain or comfort them to live in falseness against 
Jesus Christ. For since there were poor men enough to take 
men's alms, before friars came in, and the earth is now more 
barren than it was, our friars or our men had to go without 
this alms ; but friars by subtle hypocrisy get to themselves 
and prevent poor men from having this alms. . . . 

Also friars feign them as hypocrites, to keep straightly the 
Gospel and poverty of Christ and His apostles ; and yet they 
are most contrary to Christ and His apostles in hypocrisy, 
pride, and covetousness. For they show more holiness in 
bodily habit and other signs than did Christ and His apostles, 
and for their singular habit or holiness they presume to be 
even with prelates and lords, and more worthy than other 
clerks ; and in covetousness they can never make an end, but 
by begging, by crying, by burying, by salaries and trentals, 
and by shriving, by absolutions and other false means cry 
ever after worldly goods, where Christ used none of all these ; 
and thus for this stinking covetousness they worship the field 
as their God. . . . 

Also friars be thieves, both night thieves and day thieves, 
entering into the Church not by the door, that is Christ. . . . 

Also friars be wasters of treasure of our land by many 
blind and unskilful manners. For first they blind them 
blindly from freedom of the Gospel and then spend much 
gold to get them dispensation ; and many times bring vain 
pardons and other vain privileges, and in all this the gold of 
our land goes out, and simony and curse and boldness in 
sin come again. . . . 

Friars also be most privy and subtle procurators of simony 
and foul winning and begging of benefices, of indulgences and 
travels, pardons and vain privileges. For men say they will 
get a great thing of the pope, or of cardinals in England, 
more cheaply than other procurators ; and they be more wily 
and more pleasantly can flatter the pope and his court ; and 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 85 

most privily make lords to maintain the pope, in robbing our 
land of treasure by his pardons, privileges, and the first-fruits 
of benefices in our land, and dimes and subsidies to war on 
Christian men, for stinking worldly lordship that God has for- 
bidden to him and all priests ; and in false confession they 
stir lords much thereto and need to destroy the land when 
they maintain the pope and this false robbing. 

Of these fifty heresies and errors, and many more if men 
will seek them well out, they may know that friars be cause, 
beginning and maintaining of perturbation in Christendom, 
and of all evils of this world, and these errors shall never be 
amended till friars be brought to freedom of the Gospel and 
clean religion of Jesus Christ. 

D 

William Langland, Piers Plowman, c. x. 242-258 
(modernised). (1393.) 

Do we see them on Sundays, the service to hear, 

At matins, in the morning ? Till mass begin 

Or even till even-song, see we right few ! 

Or work they for their bread, as the law bids ? 

No, but at mid-day meal-time I meet with them often 

Coming in a cope as if they were clerks ; 

And for the cloth that covereth them calPd is he a friar, 

Washeth and wipeth and with the first sitteth. 

But while he worked in the world and won his meat with 

truth 
He sat at the side bench and second table. 
Came no wine to his lips all the week long, 
Nor blanket in his bed, nor white bread before him. 
The cause of all this mischief cometh of many bishops 
That suffer such sots, and other sins to reign. 
Of a truth, an we dare say so : Simon quasi dormit ; 
'Twere better to watch, for thou hast great charge. 

E 
Chaucer, Prol. Canterbury Tales (modernised). (1386-88.) 

A monk there was, a fair one for the mastery, 
A rider-out, that loved venery ; 



86 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

A manly man, to be an abbot able, 

Full many a dainty horse had he in stable ; 

And when he rode, men might his bridle hear 

Jingle in a whistling wind so clear, 

And eke as loud as doth the chapel bell. . . . 

He gave not of that text a pulled hen 

That saith that hunters be not holy men ; 

Nor that a monk, when he is cloisterless, 

Is like unto a fish that is waterless : 

This is to say, a monk out of his cloister. 

But this same text held he not worth an oyster. 

Greyhounds he had as swift as fowl in flight ; 

Of pricking and of hunting for the hare 

Was all his lust, for no cost would he spare. 

I saw his sleeves trimmed at the wrist 

With fur, and that the finest of the land. 

And for to fasten his hood under his chin 

He had of gold there wrought a curious pin : 

A love-knot in the greater end there was. . . . 

He was a lord full fat and in good point ; 

His boots were supple, his horse in great estate. 

Now certainly he was a fair prelate ; 

He was not pale as is a pinned ghost. 

A fat swan loved he best of any roast. 



William Langland, Piers Plowman, i. 65-79 
(modernised). (1362.) 

There preached a pardoner, as though he were a priest, 

And brought forth a bull, with bishop's seals, 

And said that he himself might all absolve 

From fasts ill-kept and vows that they had broke. 

Laymen believed him well, and liked his words, 

And came and kneeled to kiss his bulls. 

He tripped them with his letters, threw dust into their eyes, 

And hooked them with his parchments, rings, and brooches. 

Thus ye give your gold, gluttons to help, 

And pay it out to wantons, that love vice. 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 87 

Now were the bishop good or worth his ears, 
His seal should not be sent to cozen folk. 
The parish priest and pardoner do share the silver 
That poor parish folk should have, if 'twere not so. 



1382. Translated from Latin of Henry Knighton, ii. 183. 

(Circ. 1395.) 

There was a great increase in the adherents of this teaching, 
and they multiplied exceedingly as if from seed sown ; and 
they filled the whole land, and they got to be recognised as a 
matter of course — just as if they dated their existence from 
one and the same day ; and they became altogether brazen 
and blushed at nothing, but, as if lost to all shame, yelping 
both in private and public like dogs unceasingly. . . . 

Thus they were popularly called Wyclif's disciples and 
Wycliffites or Lollards. . . . The leaders of these so-called 
Lollards in the early days of this cursed sect used to wear 
generally russet-coloured garments, as if for an outward sign of 
their simplicity of heart, by this means to win over cunningly 
the minds of those who looked upon them and make a surer 
approach to the task of teaching and implanting their mad 
doctrine. . . . 

[Here follows a long recital of the mode of making converts, 
their abuse of opponents, their fostering of domestic strife.] . . . 

And so they were everywhere usually called Wyclif's 
disciples. And they assumed the title not unfittingly ; for 
just as their master Wyclif was powerful and strong in discussion 
over opponents, and was considered no man's inferior in 
argument, so they, however recently they had been won over 
to the sect, were trained to excessive oratory and to overcome 
their opponents in all subtlety and wordy warfare ; strong in 
words ; great in babble ; excellent in disputations ; browbeating 
all in pettifogging argument. . . . 

These Wycliffites used to proclaim that their sect was 
especially praiseworthy, and used to invite all, not only men 
but women to join it, urging them to reject the teaching and 



S8 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

preaching of every one else, and to have nothing to do with 
the preaching of the mendicant friars, whom they called " false 
preachers " ; this was their continual fervent preaching not 
only in private but also in public ; they were always plotting 
against them, calling them " false friars " ; they kept on crying 
that they themselves were the true preachers of the Gospel — 
because they had translated the Gospel into English. 

And so by public railing and prejudiced censure they 
recommended themselves to men, though not to God, and in 
the eyes of many damaged especially the position of the 
mendicant friars, for owing to the teaching and preaching of 
these men the friars were at that time hated by many ; and 
the Wyclififites becoming bolder on this account strove their 
hardest to turn the hearts of the people still further from them 
and to stop them from preaching and begging, declaring 
excommunicate the givers as well as the receivers — maintaining 
that they should earn their food and clothing by the work of 
their hands like the apostle Paul. . . . And unless God had 
quickly cut short the days of their pride, and dealt such 
affliction to their growth, I do not think that even the realm 
of England could suffer their subtlety and wickedness. 



H 

1382. John Wyclif (S.E. W. iii. 508) (modernised). 

(1382.) 

Please it to our most noble and worthy King Richard, king 
both of England and of France, and to the noble Duke of 
Lancaster and to other great men of the realm, both to seculars 
and men of Holy Church, that be gathered in the parliament 
to hear, assent, and maintain, etc. 

The first article is this ; that all persons of whatsoever kind 
of private sect or singular religion, made of sinful men, may 
freely, without any let or bodily pain, leave that private rule 
or new religion founded of sinful men, and stably hold the 
rule of Jesus Christ, taken and given by Christ to his apostles 
as far more perfect than any such new religion founded of 
sinful men. . . . 

The second point or article is this ; that the men that 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 89 

unreasonably and wrongfully have damaged the king and all 
his council, be amended of so great error and that their error 
may be published to men dwelling in the realm. For the 
chief lordship in this land of all temporalities, both of secular 
men, and religious, pertaineth to the king of his general 
governing. For else he were not king of all England, but of 
a little part thereof. Therefore the men that bethink them to 
take away his lordship from the king, as do friars and their 
abettors, in this point be sharper enemies and traitors than 
Frenchmen and all other nations. . . . 

The third article is this ; that both tithes and offerings be 
given and paid and received by that intent, to which intent or 
end God's law and the pope's law ordained them to be paid 
and received ; and that they be taken away by the same 
intent and reason, that both God's law and the pope's law 
ordained that they should be withdrawn. . . . For by God 
and his law curates be much more bound to teach their 
parishioners charitably, the Gospel and God's hests both by 
open preaching and example of good life, for to save their 
souls, than their parishioners be bound to pay them tithes and 
offerings. . . . 

The fourth article is this; that Christ's teaching and belief 
of the sacrament of his own body, that is plainly taught by 
Christ and his apostles in Gospels and epistles, may be taught 
openly in churches to Christian people, and the contrary 
teaching and false belief, brought up by cursed hypocrites and 
heretics and worldly priests, uncunning in God's law, cease. 

I 
Opinions written and published by John Wyclif 

According to Walsingham, Hist. Angl. ii. 53. 
(1 394-) 
No heresy or error will be able to be proved in the whole 
teaching of Master John Wyclif. 

God must obey the devil. 

The pope is more bound to the emperor than the emperor 
to the pope. 



90 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

There is no civil lord, no bishop, no prelate, so long as he 
is in a state of mortal sin. 

When human laws are not founded in Holy Writ, subjects 
are not bound to obedience. 



K 

1384. John Wyclif (S.E.W. iii. 504) (modernised). 

(1384.) 

I have joyfully to tell to all true men the belief that I 
hold, and by all means to the pope ; for I suppose that if my 
faith is rightful and given of God, the pope will gladly confirm 
it ; and if my faith be error, the pope will wisely amend it. 

I suppose over this, that the Gospel of Christ is the heart 
of the body of God's law ; for I believe that Jesus Christ hath 
given in his own person his Gospel, is very God and very 
man, and by this heart passes all other laws. 

I suppose over this, that the pope be most obliged to the 
keeping of the Gospel among all men that live here ; for the 
pope is highest vicar that Christ has here in earth. For 
greatness of Christ's vicar is not measured by worldly greatness 
but by this, that this vicar rather follows Christ by virtuous 
living ; for thus teaches the Gospel that this is the sentence of 
Christ. 

And of this Gospel I take as belief that Christ, what time 
he walked here was most poor man of all, both in spirit and 
in having ; for Christ says that he had not to rest his head on. 
And Paul says that he was made needy for our love, and 
more poor might no man be, neither bodily nor in spirit. 
And thus Christ put from him all manner of lordly worship. 
For the Gospel of John telleth that when they would have 
made Christ king, he fled and hid from them, for he would 
none such worldly highness. 

And over this I take as belief, that no man should follow 
the pope, or any saint that now is in heaven, save in as much 
as he follows Christ. For John and James erred when they 
coveted worldly highness ; and Peter and Paul sinned also 
when they denied and blasphemed in Christ ; but men should 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 91 

not follow them in this, for then they went from Jesus Christ. 
And this I take as wholesome counsel that the pope leave his 
worldly lordship to worldly lords, as Christ gave them — and 
move speedily all his clerks to do so. For thus did Christ, 
and taught thus his disciples, till the fiend had blinded this 
world. And it seems to some men that clerks that dwell 
lastingly in this error against God's law, and follow not Christ 
in this, be open heretics and their abettors be partners. 

And if I err in this sentence, I will meekly be amended, 
yea, by the death, if it be skilful, for that I hope were good to 
me. And if I might travel in mine own person, I would with 
good will go to the pope. But God has constrained me to do 
contrarily and taught me more obedience to God than to man. 
And I suppose of our pope that he will not be Anti-Christ, 
and reverse Christ in his working, to the contrary of Christ's 
will ; for if he summons against reason, by him or by any of 
his, and pursue his unskilful summoning, he is an open Anti- 
Christ. And merciful intent excused not Peter, that Christ 
called him not Satan ; so blind intent and wicked counsel 
excuse not the pope here ; but if he ask of true priests that 
they travel more than they may, he is not excused by reason 
of God that he is not Anti-Christ. For our belief teaches us 
that our blessed God suffers us not to be tempted more than 
we may ; how should a man ask such service ? And therefore 
pray we to God for our Pope Urban the Sixth, that his old holy 
intent be not quenched by his enemies. And Christ, that 
may not lie, says that the enemies of a man be specially his 
homely company ; and this is sooth of men and fiends. 



William Langland, Piers Plowman, 
A. viii. 168-187 (modernised). 
(1362.) 

Therefore I counsel you, ye rich men on this earth 

Who trust in your treasure trentals to have {masses for the 

dead) 
Be ye never the bolder to break the ten hests ; 
And in especial, ye masters and magistrates and judges, 



92 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

That have the wealth of this world, and wise men are held, 

To purchase you pardon and the Pope's bulls. 

At the dreadful day of doom, when dead men shall rise 

And come all before Christ, accounts to yield, 

How we led our life here, and his laws kept, 

And how we did day by day — the doom will be told. 

A pouchful of pardons there or provincial letters, 

Though we be found in fraternity of all five orders, 

And have indulgences double-fold, — unless Good Deeds us 

help, 
I set by pardons not the value of a pea or a pie-crust. 
Therefore I counsel all Christians to cry God mercy, 
And Mary his mother be our mediator with him, 
That God give us grace here, ere we go hence, 
Such works to work while we be here 
That after our death-day our Good Deeds rehearse 
At the day of doom that we did as he taught. Amen. 

Of this as of all similar exercises it is impossible to 
say in general terms how much assistance or preliminary- 
work for the class is needed. This must be decided by 
the master on the spot. With some classes it would be 
necessary first to read through the extracts carefully and 
to ask questions on them ; with others half the number 
of extracts would be sufficient. If anything more 
elaborate is needed, a careful perusal of the group of 
extracts will show that the exercise suggested does not 
nearly exhaust the possible problems and questions. 

For work of this kind it is essential that the apparatus, 
that is to say, the documents, shall be in the pupils' 
hands. Documents as read to a class have their value 
as giving atmosphere, but for the present purpose each 
boy must have his own book of extracts, which can be 
supplemented on the part of the teacher by graphed 
slips. The science teacher is not expected to obtain 
results without apparatus ; each boy is provided with 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 93 

his bench, his balance, his test-tubes, and his water-tap. 
It would be in the highest degree unreasonable to ask 
the history teacher to convert his subject into an 
educational instrument with nothing but the text-book 
to fall back upon. 

Here there is a difficulty to be faced. If documents 
are to be provided in the necessary abundance, a series 
of volumes is required, and many schoolmasters would 
shrink from asking their pupils to buy a fresh book, at 
the cost of a few shillings, for each short period of 
English history. The science laboratory indicates the 
solution of the problem. Boys are not expected to 
buy their own water-taps, Bunsen burners, and other 
apparatus ; the school provides them, and sometimes 
makes a small terminal charge for their use. In the 
same way the source-books here referred to must be 
supplied as school property, and a sum of some twenty- 
five pounds will supply a complete laboratory for school 
use. Here, as with the teaching of the other English 
subjects, schools are only just beginning to discover that 
books are cheap. In how many schools are class-room 
libraries to be found ? 

In the composition of such source-books two distinct 
methods may be employed. In each period either a few 
selected episodes may be taken, and for each a number 
of extracts which admit of comparison and contrast may 
be given, or an extract may be given for each of the 
topics that is commonly treated of in the school history 
course. The solution is a compromise. For atmospheric 
purposes it is desirable to have illustrations of most of 
the events in the accepted sequence, while with problems 
in view a few extracts for comparison may be given. It 
is then left to the teacher, working on the basis of the 



94 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

source-book, to supply graphed extracts which in com- 
bination with those already before the boys lend 
themselves to the method advocated in this chapter. 1 



Note on the Methods of teaching History suggested by Rollin. 

For Rollin, method consisted largely in hearing with 
appropriate comments a lesson that had been got up. 
" Young ladies study in private, and when the master waits 
upon them they relate to him what they have read and 
remarked more particularly. On this occasion the master 
observes whether we have made a faithful relation ; if we 
have not omitted any essential circumstance, but have laid 
the most stress on those of the greatest importance ; and 
above all, if we have taken notice of the reflections with 
which the work is interspersed, and which are in reality the 
principal fruits of history, especially with regard to youth when 
judgments ought to be ripened and their minds inspired with 
a just, a solid taste. In this view the master asks them 
questions ; desires to know what they entertain of certain 
actions, whether they don't remember some that are parallel 
to them in another history, and what judgment they form of 
great men and their character. By this method the under- 

1 The series of volumes from which many of the examples 
given here are taken is English History from Orighial Sources, 
edited by Mr. G. T. Warner and Mr. N. L. Frazer. The series 
is admirably arranged for school practice, and gives abundant 
references to the additional material on which the teacher may 
draw. 

An interesting series is that edited by the late Professor 
Yorke Powell, but it is quite unsuitable to place in boys' hands, 
and will chiefly be of service to the teacher. Smaller compendia 
of sources for the teacher's use have already been mentioned, 
p. 40 



DOCUMENTS AND METHOD 95 

standing is enlightened and improved." But he also lays 
great stress upon make the pupil active, and upon giving 
him exercises not altogether unlike some of those suggested 
above. The pupil is reading, say, Rollin's Ancient History. 
After he has read a chapter he may be asked to write out 
either (1) an abridgment of the chapter, or (2) an analysis of 
it (shorter than 1), or a summary of it (shorter than 2). "Of 
these three kinds of extracts the first is certainly best adapted 
to enlighten and improve the mind," but, as it takes a long 
time, the analysis or the summary may often be made instead. 
" This exercise may be of greater advantage to boys than to 
the other sex, for whatsoever profession they may be designed ; 
and will teach them to extract all the essential particulars 
whatever from any book. This is daily done by those who 
state a case before a judge, in order to give him a perfect 
idea of one that is crowded with numberless difficulties and 
evidences or proofs, the chaos of which they are obliged to 
clear up, without omitting anything necessary or useful." 1 

1 New Thoughts Concerning Education, by Mr. Rollin. 
English Trans., 1735, PP- 60, 70. 



CHAPTER IV 

CONTEMPORARY DOCUMENTS AS ATMOSPHERE 

In the last chapter documents have been considered 
solely for their value as affording material for written 
exercises. Even when thus used they have also their 
value as giving atmosphere and stimulating the imagina- 
tion, and it is frequently legitimate to employ them 
mainly for this purpose and to make the reasoning 
that can be done in connection with them a secondary 
matter. When used thus the documents need not 
always be placed in the pupils' hands, though they are 
more effective when this can be done, and the source- 
books to which reference has been made provide a large 
supply of material for illustrative purposes. 

If a short document is read aloud to a class there are 
several rules of procedure which are well worth noting. 
It is of very little use to read it through once and then 
to expect the class to make comments upon it or even to 
derive an atmosphere from it ; though this is a common 
mistake of beginners. It is difficult for an adult at the 
first hearing to catch the drift of any matter that is read 
to him, and boys certainly will not do so. The extract 
will need to be read through three times, say, once by 
the teacher, once by a pupil, and then again by the 
teacher, before it is worth while to comment or to 

96 



DOCUMENTS AS ATMOSPHERE 97 

question upon it. It is also on occasion advisable to 
place on the blackboard a few phrases or catchwords 
from it. Let the document be the following extract 
from a letter written by Mary Queen of Scots to 
Elizabeth in 1582. 

Believe, madame (and the doctors whom you sent to me 
this last summer can have formed an opinion), that I am not 
likely long to be in a condition which can justify jealousy or 
distrust. And this notwithstanding, exact from me such 
assurances and just and reasonable conditions as you wish. 
Superior force is always on your side to make me keep them, 
even though for any reason whatever I should wish to break 
them. You have had from observation enough experience of 
my bare promises, sometimes even to my own damage, as I 
showed you on this subject two years ago. Remember, if you 
please, what I then wrote you, and that in no way could you 
so much win over my heart to yourself as by kindness, 
although you have confined forever my poor body to languish 
between four walls ; those of my rank and disposition not 
permitting themselves to be gained over or forced by any 
amount of harshness. 

In conclusion I have to request two things especially ; the 
one that as I am about to leave this world I may have by me 
for my consolation some honourable churchman, in order that 
I may daily examine the road that I have to traverse and be 
instructed how to complete it according to my religion, in 
which I am firmly resolved to live and die. This is a last 
duty which cannot be denied to the most wretched and miser- 
able person alive ; it is a liberty which you give to all foreign 
ambassadors, just as all other Catholic kings allow yours the 
practice of their religion. And as for yourself, have I ever 
forced my own subjects to do anything against their religion 
even when I had all power and authority over them ? And 
you cannot justly bring it to pass that I should be in this 
extremity deprived of such a privilege. What advantage can 
accrue to you from denying me this ? I hope that God will for- 
give me if, oppressed by you in this wise, I do not cease from 

7 



98 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

paying him that duty which in my heart will be permitted. But 
you will give a very ill example to other princes of Christendom 
of employing, towards their subjects and relatives, the same 
harshness which you mete out to me, a sovereign queen and 
your nearest relative, as I am and shall be in spite of my 
enemies so long as I live. 

Here it will be well to place on the blackboard 
sentences like You have had from observation enough 
experience of my bare promises, sometimes even to my own 
damage ; and As for myself have I ever forced my own 
subjects to do anything against their religion, even when 
I had all power and authority over them. Comments 
might be made or questions asked upon either or both 
of these sentences, and it is useful to isolate from the other 
points in this way. 

The constant reiteration of the same statement in a 
laconic chronicle is often very effective. How could the 
desolation of England under the Danish inroads be 
brought out better than by the following extract from 
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle! 

A. 869. This year the army again went to York, and sat 
there one year. 

A. 870. This year the army rode across Mercia into East 
Anglia, and took up their winter quarters at Thetford, and the 
same winter King Edmund fought against them, and the Danes 
got the victory and slew the King and subdued all the land. . . . 

A. 871. This year the army came to Reading in Wessex, 
and three days after this two of their earls rode forth. Then 
Ethelwulf the ealderman met them at Englefield and there 
fought against them and got the victory. . . . 

A. 872. This year the army went from Reading to 
London and there took up their winter quarters, and there 
the Mercians made peace with the army. 

A. 873. This year the army went into North Humbria 
and took up their quarters at Torksey in Lindsey. . . . 

A. 874. This year the army went from Lindsey to 



DOCUMENTS AS ATMOSPHERE 99 

Repton and there took up their winter quarters, and drove 
King Burhed over sea. . . . 

A. 875. This year the army went from Repton. . . . 
And the army subdued the land and oft-times spoiled the Picts 
and the Strathclyde Britons. . . . 

A. 876. This year the army stole away to Wareham, a 
fortress of the West Saxons. And afterwards the King made 
peace with the army. 

A. 877. This year the army came to Exeter from 
Wareham, and the fleet sailed round westwards ; and then a 
great storm overtook them at sea and there one hundred and 
twenty ships were wrecked at Swanwich. . . . 

A. 878. This year during midwinter, after twelfth night, 
the army stole away to Chippenham and overran the land of 
the West-Saxons and sat down there. 

A. 879. This year the army went to Cirencester from 
Chippenham and sat there one year. . . 

A. 880. This year the army went from Cirencester to 
East Anglia and settled in the land and apportioned it. 

From 881 to 893 the army was on the continent. Then : 

A. 893. The great army . . . came to land at Limne- 
mouth with two hundred and fifty ships. 

Here the expression " the army," meaning the Danes, 
for the English had no organised army, reiterated yearly 
by the chronicler in his meagre narrative, makes a 
more profound impression than any word painting. The 
extract should not be read too fast, and the "army" 
phrase might be blackboarded for several successive 
years. Or, perhaps, as a variant, a couple of pages of 
the Chronicle might be read to the class, and they might 
be asked to observe and see whether any one type of 
event is common to all the years. 

A few short extracts graphed on one slip frequently 
form a good basis for a lesson, and can be used in a 
variety of ways. The following served to illustrate a 
lesson on the American War of Independence. 



ioo TEACHING OF HISTORY 

(a) Franklin to Samuel Cooper 

London, July 7, 1773. 

The great defect here is in all sorts of people a want 
of attention to what passes in such remote countries as 
America — an unwillingness to read anything about them if it 
appears a little lengthy, and a disposition to postpone the 
consideration even of the things they know they must at last 
consider, so that they may have time for what more immedi- 
ately concerns them, and withal enjoy their amusements and 
be undisturbed in the universal dissipation. 

{b) The interests of Newfoundland are being threatened 
by a scheme for the establishment of a cod and whale fishery 
in lake Erie and lake Ontario. 

(c) There no useful profession is the subject of ridicule or 
contempt. Idleness alone is a disgrace. Military rank and 
public employment do not prevent a person from having a 
calling of his own. Every one there is a tradesman, a farmer, 
or an artisan. Those who are less well off — the servants, 
labourers, and sailors, unlike men of the lower classes in 
Europe, are treated with a consideration they merit by the 
propriety of their conduct and their behaviour. 

De Segur. 

The first extract gives atmosphere, as well as an 
opportunity of discussing the view taken of England by 
the colonists. The second extract introduces a question, 
" Does this extract from a London newspaper of the 
period show that the English had (1) an interest in, (2) 
a good knowledge of the conditions of life in America ? " 
The third gives an opening for asking whether the 
first or the third extract is the more likely to be 
biased in its statements. Again the eternal question of 
evidence ! 

The next couple of extracts, representing a graphed 
slip, illustrates a lesson on Domesday Book. (A) is an 



DOCUMENTS AS ATMOSPHERE 101 

extract from Domesday Book itself, referring to Oxford 
(the lesson was given in that city) ; (B) is the Saxon 
Chronicle's account of William I.'s procedure. The 
, manner of using these needs no further comment. 

(A) In the time of King Edward Oxeneford paid for toll 
* and all other customs yearly. . . . The King has twenty wall- 
mansions which were Earl Algars, in the time of King Edward, 
paying both then and now fourteen shillings less two pence. 
. . . They are called wall-mansions because, if there is need 
and the King command it, they shall repair the wall. All the 
burgesses of Oxeneford hold in common a pasture outside the 
wall that brings in six shillings and eightpence. 

(B) He sent his men into every shire and caused them to 
write down how many hundred hides of land it contained, and 
what lands the King possessed therein, what cattle there were 
in the several counties, and how much revenue he ought to 
receive yearly from each. So very narrowly did he cause the 
survey to be made, that there was not a single hide nor a rood 
of land, nor — it is shameful to relate that which he thought 
no shame to do — was there an ox, a cow, or a pig passed by, 
and that was not set down on the accounts, and then all these 
writings were brought to him. 

It is not for a moment suggested that documents of 
this kind should be introduced into every lesson, or that 
there is any particular virtue in merely placing them 
before a class. On the contrary it should be recognised 
that it is illegitimate to use a document of any kind 
unless it is made thorough use of. With these extracts 
as with all other material for teaching it is necessary for 
the teacher to turn them over in his mind very often, and 
to consider how every scrap of value can be squeezed 
out of them. Neither should the number introduced 
during the term be very great. A few documents care- 
fully studied will be impressed on the boys' minds and 
will serve as centres round which historical facts may be 



102 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

grouped ; a large number cursorily read through will be 
to the pupil as a diffuse and not very well-arranged 
reading-book. The experienced teacher who has learned 
to give a long lesson on a minimum of subject matter 
needs no advice on this point, but the beginner, unless 
he is very careful, is likely to err here. 

The following extract, exhaustively treated, gives 
ample opportunity both for revision and for introducing 
fresh matter. 

April 7, 1416. English Chronicle, ed. Davies, p. 42 

(English modernised). {Circa 1461-1471.) 

This same year [14 16] came Sigismund, the Emperor of 
Almaine, into England, for to speak with King Harry, to treat 
of certain things touching the peace of England and of France, 
and also for the welfare and unity of all holy Church. And 
the king and his lords met with him at St. Thomas Watering, 
without Southwark, and him received with great reverence and 
worship, and brought him into London, and from thence to 
Westminster, and there he was lodged in the palace at the 
king's cost, and that same time the king gave him the livery of 
the Garter. And when the emperor had been in this land as 
long as it liked him at the king's cost, he took his leave of the 
king ; and the king brought him to Calais, and tarried there 
to have answer from the French party of such things as the 
emperor and the king had sent to them for ; and at last it 
came and pleased them right nought; and then the emperor 
passed forth his way, and the king came into England again. 

The passages italicised indicate the line of comment. 
The relations between England and France may be 
revised, while the occasion may be used to give a lesson 
upon the emperor's position as regards (i) the various 
European powers, (2) the Church, and to consider how far 
his authority depended upon tradition and how far upon 
military strength. There are also indications which 



DOCUMENTS AS ATMOSPHERE 103 

should not be overlooked that the English king was 
gratified at having the emperor as his guest. Finally 
the document may be used to revise or to expand the 
boys' knowledge of the topography of London. 
So, too, with the following document : — 

1376. Translated from Latin of Walsingham, 

Hist. Angl. i. 320. 
(Before 1394.) 

In the year of grace 1376, at the beginning of the month 
of May, King Edward caused a full parliament to beholden at 
Westminster; and therein, after wonted custom, he did ask 
certain supplies from the Commons for the defence of his 
realm ; but those of the Commons said in reply that they 
were exceeding weary by reason of such imposts, and main- 
tained truly that they could no longer bear such burdens without 
sore hurt to themselves. For it was abundantly evident to 
them that the king had enough for the defence of his realm, 
if so be the realm had been wisely and faithfully governed ; 
but so long as such rule were held in the realm as at this 
present time owing to evil men in office, it would never flourish 
in prosperity or wealth. And they offered to prove this 
beyond dispute ; and if after this proof it should be found 
that the king were in any further need, they would help him 
according to their ability. Now in the conduct of the matter 
many facts were brought forward concerning the kings friends, 
and especially concerning Lord Latimer, his treasurer, who 
ruled the king with most evil governance. Wherefore the 
Duke of Lancaster, Lord Latimer, and many other high officers 
of the king were removed and others chosen in their places. 

Here the points that may be treated are (1) the com- 
position of Parliament; (2) the question of supply, with a 
revision of previous occasions (e.g. at the close of Edward 
I.'s first campaign in France) on which the Commons had 
responded liberally to the King's appeal ; (3) a con- 
sideration of the classes upon whom the burden of 
taxation fell most heavily ; (4) the clique of persons who 



104 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

were diverting the revenue into their own purses ; (5) the 
effective power of the Commons to remove ministers. 

Although the necessity of thus getting to the bottom 
of a document cannot be too forcibly expressed, there is 
still a place in the history lesson for contemporary 
authorities as atmosphere and nothing more. On 
occasion it is right to spend half an hour in reading to a 
class Froissart's Chronicles or More's Utopia, or Hakluyt's 
Voyages, merely asking a few questions during or at the 
end of the reading to test and stimulate attention. In 
this case the boys are not expected to remember the 
facts and details of the narrative ; the object is to interest 
them rather than to induce ^reasoning. This mode of 
using contemporary writers must be clearly distinguished 
from the method advocated in this chapter. 



CHAPTER V 

METHOD AND MORAL TRAINING 

The moral value of school subjects, if this phrase means 
their effect upon character and upon the consequent 
outlook upon life, depends upon two factors — the ideas 
that they convey, and the mental processes through 
which these ideas are obtained. Subjects that give 
opportunity for prolonged effort are likely to cultivate 
the habit of persistency, and this habit acquired during 
school-days will tend to promote strength of will in 
after-life ; while on the other hand a desultory trifling 
with interesting topics will certainly lead to listlessness 
and indecision. These propositions appear so full of 
common sense that few people would question them 
unless they were stated in more precise and more 
scientific terms. But in dealing with school history 
scant attention has been paid to mental processes. It 
has become a convention to talk of the value of the 
subject in forming character, and by forming character 
has been meant the giving of ideas about character 
which both provide mental furniture and working through 
imitation determine decision and action in periods of 
moral conflict. Here, however, we are confronted with 
the difficulty that to some boys the shady side of conduct 
is as likely to appeal as the sinless. In fact, if we 

105 



106 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

suppose that from the moral standpoint the characters 
and actions in history are equally balanced, half being 
good and half being bad, the history lesson for purposes 
of leading to good conduct neutralises itself. Further, 
if we admit that the bad characters outweigh the good, 
then unless we suppose a natural tendency to imitate 
the good rather than the bad, the net effect of history 
will be injurious ; and if this supposition is rejected as 
contrary to experience, it is evident that the whole 
question of the desirability of analysing and criticising 
character with junior forms calls for careful consideration. 
Undoubtedly the great practical difficulty with which 
the teacher is here confronted is the sordid nature of 
most of the dramatis personae in certain periods of 
English history. He is face to face with a dilemma. 
If he gives these personages as examples of character to 
be imitated it is generally necessary to suppress facts or 
to amend them in a way inconsistent with historical 
accuracy ; while if the facts of human nature are pre- 
sented to children in their nakedness, they might well 
irreparably destroy that belief in human nature which 
most people recover at a certain period of life, although 
they may have lost it during a transition stage. Few of 
the history teacher's problems are more perplexing than 
this one. Unless he lays stress upon the ugliness and 
the brutality of past ages, it is difficult to bring home 
the fact that there has been a true progress, a real 
evolution in time. This is wholly obscured by the 
presentation to the child of the rose-coloured knights 
who walk sedately along their church - going paths 
through the pages of popular historical novels ; it is 
obscured if we conceal the fact that kings were frequently 
liars and scoundrels, and their ministers self-seeking 



METHOD AND MORAL TRAINING 107 

functionaries; it is obscured if we hide from our children, 
even of middle -school age, the terrible sordidness of 
motive that stands out so clearly in a record of private 
life such as the Paston Letters, and which is a fitting 
counterpart to the troublousness of the times ; it is 
obscured if in treating of any period we select for friendly 
description only the virtuous characters, and pass over 
the lives of the others in silence. And yet, what may 
not be the cost if in adhering to historic truth we destroy 
the idealism of youth and prematurely lay stress on the 
meaner aspect of life which in any case will make itself 
felt only too soon ! 

Here the psychology of mental growth comes to our 
aid. The small boy is in the epic stage. Slight grada- 
tions of conduct are not for him. The good characters 
are good and the bad characters are bad. Rebellions, 
crusades, and battles give the movement, glorious victories 
the colour. Petty lives centred upon selfish ends, 
saintly lives marred by great ambitions, great ambitions 
vitiated by self-indulgence, desirable results gained by 
evil means, mixed motives in acting, lack of steadfastness 
in willing, all these are non-existent for this stage. A 
boy will read Marryat's novels without noticing the 
moralising, he will read Henty without remarking that 
much of it is as dull as his history text-book, and the 
more complex elements in history if placed before him 
are simply neglected. 

Therefore, whether we wish it or not, the idealistic 
stage will always precede the critical, and up to a limit 
it is well to assist nature. Elizabeth must be good 
Queen Bess before the boy learns that she could swear 
like a fish-wife and lie like a horse-dealer ; Wolsey must 
be the magnificent prelate and promoter of learning 



108 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

before he is displayed as having the soul of a flunkey ; 
the utmost peccadillo allowed to a potentate must be a 
surfeit of lampreys, and in deference to epic justice the 
result must invariably be fatal. But care must be taken 
that this idealistic stage does not last too long, and that 
it is surely followed by the critical stage. If it must be 
remembered that idealism is needed in the early stages, 
it is equally necessary to remember that an excess of it 
even in the early stages will tend to retard mental 
growth. Most instructive in this connection are some 
answers upon historical characters and events given by 
Muriel Howard, 1 aged fourteen, educated in a secondary 
school which enjoys the advantage of financial aid both 
from the rates and from the State, as well as the privilege 
of State inspection. In this case, as will be seen, the 
result of the history lesson has been to produce an 
unbounded optimism and belief in human nature. 

i. Here ward the Wake was a good ruler over a country. 
He was ruler over English people. He was born in the year 
1076. He died in the year 1381. 

Thomas a Becket was quite a little boy when he became 
king. He was a good little king. He was born in the year 
1080, and he died in the year 1400. 

Jack Cade was a good ruler and a good man. He was 
born in the year 1090, and he fought a great rebellion which 
was called Jack Cade's rebellion. He died in the year 1100 
after many happy years. 

2. The result of the Norman Conquest was very bad. 
The Normans won the English at a battle near Newbury. 
The Battle was fought by the Normans in the year 1 1 1 2. 

3. The Magna Charta was a document which had to be 
signed by King John which was called the Great Charter. It 
was signed by King John because the Pope wanted King 

1 The name is of course fictitious. 



—ssm 



METHOD AND MORAL TRAINING 109 

John to sign the document. It was passed in the year 1340. 
It was a great document. King John was a good king and a 
good man ; he died in the year 1400. 

The Battle of Bosworth was won by the English against 
the Normans in the year 1420. It was fought on Bosworth 
Field. It was a great battle. 

The Spanish Armada was a fleet of ships which set out for 
a sail on the water. The day w r as nice, fine, clear, and the 
water was calm and everything the sailors wanted. 

4. The Petition of Right is a Bill passed by the King. 
The Bill consisted of different things, that every man and 
woman, boy or girl, should pay a tax of shilling raise for every 
boy or girl over fifteen years of age. 

5. Mary Queen of Scots was a good queen and also a 
good woman. She was a woman who had plenty of style. 
She wore dresses of plenty of style. She was born in the year 
1500 and she died in the year 1600. 

6. The Gunpowder Plot was started by Guy Fawkes in the 
year 905 on the 5th of November. He begun by putting 
Gunpowder in a hole and then lit it with a match. From 
that day till now the 5th of November has been called Bonfire 
night when people have set fireworks off on that night and 
fires have been going in the open air. 

The effect of the history teaching that Muriel Howard 
has received would satisfy the most ardent advocate 
of direct moral instruction. Everything that has 
been placed before her is epic, and indeed fit for the 
primmest drawing-room. For her nothing that is 
common or mean exists. All the kings, queens, or other 
personages, whether they bear their own names or those 
of other people, whether they live for ten years or for 
two hundred years, are "good" men and "good" women; 
all the battles and documents are " great." Her optimism 
extends even to inanimate nature. The winds and the 
waves moderate their violence when Muriel Howard sets 
her historical sails. 



no TEACHING OF HISTORY 

This, no doubt, is an extreme case, but it illustrates 
the danger of postponing the critical stage. It is during 
the secondary period that the boy's critical faculty is 
developing and must be made use of. It is by introducing 
criticism of a mild order that exercises of the kind 
already suggested can be devised. It is only if thought- 
compelling exercises can be devised that history is worth 
treating as a serious school subject, and, it may now be 
added, it is only if this formal element be there that 
history can be of real value as a moral training. 

The value of critical exercises cannot clearly be shown 
without a careful consideration of the formal element in 
the mental complex, and a brief review of the various 
standpoints from which mind can be viewed and described 
will facilitate this. None of the accepted modes of 
setting forth the mechanism of mental process and thus 
of explaining certain mental facts can be regarded as 
wholly satisfactory. The psychology of Aristotle was 
frankly what would now be called a faculty psychology. 
If a mental process, let us say memory, is in question, 
the problem is attacked by asking " to which part of the 
soul it belongs." The soul is viewed as composed of a 
number of parts working with relative independence, 
and one element in psychological explanation consisted 
in referring a particular mental fact to the operation of 
a certain faculty. As a convenient preliminary mode of 
classifying mental phenomena there is perhaps not much 
to be said against this attitude, and it has been really 
mischievous only when the explanation, a merely verbal 
one, has been considered final, and the door has been 
closed upon further research. 

The method, which arose with Locke, of describing 
mental processes in term of ideas which initiate and 



METHOD AND MORAL TRAINING in 

associate with one another was an attempt to make an 
advance upon the older method of classification, and 
undoubtedly has been of use in spite of the metaphysical 
difficulties which it brings with it. The new way of 
ideas did not, indeed, entirely supplant the older method, 
for Kant, like Aristotle, viewed the mind as schematised 
and split up into a number of parts or faculties, arranged 
in a hierarchy and each with its own peculiar functions. 
As a reaction against this view we find the Herbartian 
psychology, which introduces the notion of ideas, though 
from a standpoint and with metaphysical presuppositions 
very different from those of Locke, and throws overboard 
the Kantian schematism. 

In modern psychology these two standpoints are still 
in evidence, although they are not always clearly distin- 
guished, and some writers of repute scarcely seem to 
realise when they are passing from one to the other. If 
mind is described as consisting of trains of ideas, if for 
example we explain the image of an old school-fellow 
which arises in our mind as due to a series of successive 
associations, partly of contiguity, partly of similarity, 
and if we further bring to our aid a certain state of 
feeling and a certain general aim or objective of our 
mental state as giving a tone to these ideas and thus 
finally assisting to bring into our mind the idea or 
meaning that we found there, or if we use the expression 
" psychical disposition" to describe the effect that remains 
behind after a state of consciousness has passed by, it is 
impossible not to think of the ideas and of the psychical 
disposition as belonging to or subsisting in a mind which 
is something more than they are, which possesses a 
greater element of permanence and independence, and 
which is able to observe them and to claim them as 



ii2 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

belonging to itself. If on the other hand we start with 
the conception of a central unity of mind which admits 
of certain phases, which may for example be discovered 
in a state of willing or striving, or which is conscious of 
itself as being pleased, or afraid, or aware, we escape, it 
is true, from the difficulties which ideas always bring in 
their train, but we are debarred from explaining or even 
from describing some mental processes which lend them- 
selves to explanation in no other way save that of ideas. 
Frequently it is only the initial description of a mental 
fact that can be given indifferently in terms of either 
standpoint. Thus, for the idea -psychology attention 
takes place when a certain idea stands out clearly in or 
takes possession of the mind ; for the ego-psychology, 
attention is the turning of the mind in a certain direction ; 
but in this case it is difficult from the ego-standpoint to 
carry description or explanation any further. 

As has been pointed out, " most psychologists adopt 
a middle position ; they treat one side of mental life, 
the phenomena of sensation, perception, and imagination, 
and the simpler life of feeling from the first standpoint, 
as a series of processes ; while the other portion of 
consciousness — thought, the higher life of emotion, and 
in particular the will, they regard from the second stand- 
point." 1 Each of these two positions, that of the ego- 
psychology and that of the idea-psychology, leads to a 
characteristic educational attitude. Those who view 
mind as a striving, unifying entity, tend to advocate the 
exercising of the mind in a formal manner, to keep it 
in condition, as it were. Those for whom mind is a 
complex of meanings or ideas ridicule the notion that 

1 M. W, Calkins, Der doppelte Standpunkt in der Psychologies 
1905, p. 9. 



METHOD AND MORAL TRAINING 113 

an objectless manipulation of these ideas can be of 
advantage to the mind. Mind can be built up, its 
content can be increased and strengthened by the intro- 
duction of new ideas, but a formal training is an absurdity. 
A fuller description of the two positions will make the 
issue clearer. Let them be called Neo-Herbartianism 
and Neo-Kantianism. 

The Neo-Herbartian educationists adopt the meta- 
physical position of their master, though they are always 
prepared to throw a portion of it overboard if its insuffi- 
ciency is pointed out. For them mind consists of the 
ideas or meanings introduced into it. These ideas are 
able to adopt an attitude of attraction towards or repul- 
sion from one another. They can collect in groups for the 
purpose of expelling undesirables or of summoning into 
consciousness ideas whose presence is felt to be a source 
of strength. The basis of mind is thus intellectual, it is 
composed of meanings, and these meanings are discrete 
entities. From the interplay of and struggle between 
these entities feeling arises, and it is therefore secondary 
in its nature ; while from these feelings in turn will is 
produced, thus occupying a very subordinate position in 
the hierarchy. Associationist psychology is always at 
its worst when it treats of will and reduces it to an 
association complex, and Herbartianism is no exception 
to the rule. 

It would be unfair to Herbartianism, as stated by 
Herbart himself, to say that for educational purposes it 
leads to the notion of a purely receptive mind, since for 
Herbart the groups of ideas that are called into existence 
are in their corporate nature extremely active and 
energetic. But the Neo-Herbartian does not escape the 
pitfalls of the associationist position. Mind as the 

8 



H4 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

unifying centre is left out of sight. The teacher is told 
that his business is to fill the mind, and unfortunately 
he is only too ready to accept the invitation. Applied 
to the teaching of history the baleful effect of this doctrine 
is soon apparent. History is to be " narrated," stories 
are to be " told," biographies are to be " placed before " 
the pupils, and in some mysterious way, presumably 
through imitation, the examples of character thus given 
are to mould character. Because it provides these 
human documents, history more than any other subject 
is to be regarded as character-forming ; and its power in 
this respect is derived solely from its subject matter. 
There is no hint in any of the Neo-Herbartian writings 
that any activity peculiar to the subject matter is to be 
demanded from the pupil or that the virtue of the 
information may depend upon the manner in which it is 
acquired. 1 

Opposed to the views set forth above are those of the 
Neo-Kantians. Just as Herbartianism unconsciously 
leads its adherents to soft pedagogics, to the skilful 
filling of a receptive mind, so the Kantian doctrine leads 

1 It may here be remarked that those writers who call them- 
selves Herbartians, but who profess to drop Herbart's metaphysic 
while retaining his educational results, are lending themselves to a 
needless confusion. To say that any associationist standpoint 
or any demand to introduce meanings into the boy's mind is 
peculiarly Herbartian is to use the term to no purpose. It is 
impossible to discuss certain phases of educational process without 
in some form using the association hypothesis ; it is impossible 
to conceive of a teacher save as a man who in some way intro- 
duces ideas. If a doctor were to proclaim himself a Harveian, 
we should certainly conclude that he not only agreed with 
Harvey's statement of the circulation of the blood, but in addition 
was in sympathy with some of his more characteristic views, say 
with his belief in final causes. Otherwise the term, as applied to 
him, would have no meaning. 



METHOD AND MORAL TRAINING 115 

to the opposite notion of a rigorous formal training. 
Evidence of this is to be found in Kant's own lectures 
on Education (a subject about which he knew remark- 
ably little), when he demands that the memory shall be 
exercised and that language teaching shall begin with 
grammar. Still more clearly is the tendency visible in 
the writings of a modern Kantian, Dr. Paul Natorp, 
from whose work Sozial Padagogik 1 we may extract 
a characteristic sequence of argument. 

If we examine nature we find only what exists, but 
no hint of what ought to be, no indication of the aim 
we should set before us, no suggestion of the ideal. 
Experience, however, tells us that in addition to the 
knowledge of how things exist, we have also a suspicion 
of how they ought to exist. This knowledge we derive 
not from nature, but from ourselves, and not from our 
intellect, but from our practical knowledge, from the 
ideal form that is within us, from the will. 

The intellect must be sharply distinguished from the 
will. Intellect is superior to nature. It does not depend 
upon facts, neither does it draw its laws from them. 
The formal modes of combination, the categories, are 
given by the intellect. The law of combination deter- 
mines the fact. For the intellect nothing is determined 
that it has not itself determined. Intellect never reaches 
finality in the unconditioned. When it explains it finds 
an unending regress, and it appears to reach a conclusion 
only because it decides to go no farther. The Idea of 

1 Sozial Padagogik. Theorie der Willenserziehung auf der 
Grundlage der Gemei?ischaft, 1899. This admirable book, one 
of the most careful pieces of educational work that has recently 
appeared, is far too little known in England. It may confidently 
be commended to the reader. 



n6 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

the unconditioned holds good for the understanding, 
but it has for it only a negative meaning, it does but 
indicate its limitations. Intellect does not feel the need 
of finality. If its logical basis, its root conceptions and 
formulae are clearly defined, it is content to proceed 
and thus to gain a fuller knowledge of its object. As 
a unifying and combining force the intellect deserves 
to be exercised for its own sake. 1 It is from the will, 
from practical knowledge, on the other hand, that we 
derive our conception of what ought to be ; from it are 
obtained the formal laws of necessity ; through it we 
are brought into contact with the unconditioned, with 
the ideal form, with the moral law. For all purposes 
of conduct, for the positing of ends, for the conception 
of ideals, we depend upon this practical knowledge, 
and thus the proper method of training the will is of 
paramount importance for the educator. 

The connection between intellect -training and will- 
training is a close one. " The will has its material 
wholly in common with the understanding ; nothing 
that comes under the laws of will lies outside the laws 
given by the understanding and vice versa. From these 
considerations the one-sided dependence of will-culture 
upon intellect-culture which Herbart maintains cannot 
be derived. According to our view the will is in form 
placed over the intellect, with which it shares its content 
of knowledge. From the community of the subject- 
matter follows the necessity of a thorough combination 
of intellect-training, and of will-training from the lowest 

1 Natorp, op. cit. p. 273. — " The most questionable result of the 
Herbartian view of ' educative instruction ' adopted by his modern 
adherents is that they have scarcely any belief in the independent 
value of training the intellect." 



METHOD AND MORAL TRAINING n7 

to the highest stages of human development, and from the 
formal subjection of the intellect to the will it follows that 
the development of the understanding is a continual exer- 
cise of the will and in so far is favourable to its growth." l 
If subjects are to be arranged in order of merit 
for their character -forming value, this must be done 
in accordance with their proximity to the Idea, i.e. 
according to the degree of pure form to be found in 
them. Judged by this standard mathematics enjoys 
a pre-eminent position, while on the other hand history 
would be of little value if it only awakened sympathy 
with man. Unless the element of Form be there, 
instruction that occupies itself with men is no more 
educative than that which occupies itself with equations. 
Thus even for history and in respect of the influence 
that it exercises upon the will, we are brought back 
to the path of intellect -training. History like other 
subjects has an intellectual side, and it must be used to 
exercise the understanding. But this is not recognised. 
In mathematics and in mathematical science the instruc- 
tion does not consist in the imparting of facts that have 
been discovered ; yet although in history facts and their 
connexions have had to be discovered and established, 
the pupil has no suspicion of this ; the accepted method 
for instruction in history is narration. 

It is evident, therefore, that while the formal training 
to be derived from history is overlooked by the Her- 
bartian, it is strongly insisted upon by the Neo-Kantian, 
and that the mere giving of biographies or accounts of 
noble actions in the hope that conduct will thereby be 
affected receives no support from this quarter. 

1 Op. cit. p. 269. 



n8 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

There is yet another standpoint from which the 
necessity of a rigorous method in history teaching can be 
established. Once childhood is past and the boy enters 
upon the secondary school stage he tends to resent at- 
tempts that are made to influence his views upon morals 
or upon conduct. The following propositions attempt to 
state this tendency scientifically and to suggest a remedy. 

The normal healthy adolescent mind readily adopts 
an attitude of contrariance when attempts are made to 
introduce to it ideas which embody notions of morality 
or of conduct. The more directly these moral ideas 
are introduced, the stronger tends to be the reaction 
against them, unless the person or the situation which 
introduces them is sufficiently masterful or impressive 
to inhibit this contrariance by introducing a strong 
emotional tone. Much teaching of this kind, while 
in a certain sense it might be effective, would not in 
the long run make for the moral or intellectual welfare 
of the pupil. This is, however, not the only method of 
dealing with these contrariant ideas. The attitude of 
reaction can be prevented from coming into existence 
if the ideas that convey moral notions are introduced 
very gradually and incidentally. This can be ensured 
if they are presented through the medium of problem 
work and investigational activity, as then very little 
opportunity is given for these contrariant ideas to come 
to the front. It is also an advantage that in these 
circumstances the ideas about morality will be suffused 
with a strong conative tone, and thus will be assisted 
to become moral ideas, or ideas that tend to be realised 
in action, feeling, or belief. 1 

1 For a fuller treatment of this topic see the writer's Suggestion 
in Education, 1907. 



METHOD AND MORAL TRAINING 119 

If there is any validity in this train of reasoning, its 
application to the teaching of history demands that the 
formal element be used to the full, and that the merely 
receptive attitude on the part of the learner be given 
but little encouragement. 

In education it is seldom wise to side with extremists, 
and it is not incumbent here to take up the cudgels 
either for the Herbartians or the Kantians. It is, how- 
ever, striking that from several standpoints the moral 
effects of the truths contained in history appear to 
depend upon the method by which they are obtained. 
For the Neo-Kantian the will can be trained only 
through the vigorous working of the mind ; for the 
believer in contrariant ideas, ideas about conduct are 
likely to issue in action or belief only if they are acquired 
through a business-like method, and it is only when 
history is taught in a manner which complies with 
these demands that it commends itself to the school- 
master as a workable subject which lends itself to routine 
manipulation. When psychological analysis and the 
teacher's craft both demand the same method, there can 
be little doubt that the method is a sound one, and that 
therefore for the secondary stage the critical treatment 
of documents or other evidence, when conducted with 
judgment, leads to a mode of teaching history which 
will meet the requirements both of theory and of practice. 



CHAPTER VI 

'ON CONCRETE ILLUSTRATION 

Hitherto stress has been laid upon the formal element 
in history, and this element, let it be repeated, is 
essential in a routine school subject ; but the formalism 
must have suitable material to work upon, the pupil 
must reason about matters which are concrete to him in 
every sense of the word. There must be a basis of facts 
which interest him, of human beings with whom he is 
on familiar terms, of places through which he can find 
his way with his eyes shut, of religious movements that 
are as real to him as to the people who lived through 
them, of legislation whose force is as present to him as 
to those who sought to evade it, of statesmen whose 
wisdom he feels to have been a source of strength to 
national life. Unless the narrative of history lives, the 
formal processes might almost as well be carried out in 
algebra. For the newer method history is a formal 
study, but its formalism works in the most human 
subject-matter imaginable. 

This looks well in print, but it is not easy to bring 
about in the class-room. The boyish mind loves to 
remain on the surface of things, if this saves trouble. It 
has an aggravating habit of remembering phrases, which 



ON CONCRETE ILLUSTRATION 121 

mean nothing to it, and of forgetting details, which 
might mean a great deal. A boy will tell you with a 
smiling face and an apparent consciousness of merit, 
that Wyclif " was the morning star of the Reformation," 
and fail when pressed to produce any facts about either 
the Reformation or Wyclif. For middle forms legis- 
lation and religious changes tend to be the most stub- 
born of abstractions. 

And yet there is nothing abstract or intangible about 
legislation for those who are brought into contact with 
it. The Company Laws are quite concrete for a boy 
whose father is doing time at Portland for a breach of 
them ; an increase in the income tax is not in the least 
abstract to the boy who is told that for him and for 
his brothers it means a fortnight less at the sea-side. 
For the boy as for the old lady whose idea of history 
is the chronique scandaleuse of a French court, the 
concrete is the small human detail, and if we can show 
in this detail the effect that legislation had upon the 
lives of human beings, its abstract appearance vanishes 
at once. 

" The Statute of Mortmain checked the giving of 
land to corporations which were unable to perform 
feudal service." Of all the dry portions of English 
history the legal activity of Edward I. can be the most 
arid ; it is a veritable Sahara of legislation. Let us 
apply our remedy to it. 

To introduce the personal element a little fiction is 
useful. We introduce two barons, each living on his 
own estate. Let them be called baron A and baron B. 
Let the estates be drawn upon the blackboard, and let 
each baron be domiciled in his stronghold. 



122 TEACHING OF HISTORY 




On what tenure did they hold their estates ? What 
duties or payments to the over-lord did the feudal 
system bring with it ? 

We revise some of the feudal incidents that suit our 
purpose: (i) Wardship; (2) Fine on the marriage of 
heiresses ; (3) Intestacy ; (4) Escheat for treason ; and 
make it clear that it was from these and similar sources 
that the king's purse was filled, and that in this respect 
some barons must have been worth more to him than 
others. 

Wenowproceed to give a description of our twofriends. 

Baron A is some thirty-eight years old ; he married 
young, and his two sons are of age ; his two daughters 
have been married for some years ; he is businesslike, 
and has made all arrangements for the disposition of his 
property ; he is extremely loyal. What are the king's 
chances of getting from this baron any of the fines 
mentioned above ? Extremely small. 

Now consider baron B : he is forty-eight years old, a 
considerable age for this period, and is in poor health ; 
he married late, and his eldest son is only fifteen years of 



ON CONCRETE ILLUSTRATION 123 

age and of feeble constitution ; he is unbusinesslike, 
and has probably not made the necessary legal arrange- 
ments about his property ; he has three unmarried 
daughters who may become heiresses ; he is suspected 
of treasonable designs. 

What are the king's chances of getting fines from 
him ? Very considerable. Such a baron must have 
been a godsend to an extravagant monarch. Which of 
these barons is of greater value to his lord in this 
respect ? Obviously baron B. 

Baron B, as narrated, is in poor health. He was 
always of a religious disposition, and as he grows feebler 
he sees a good deal of the neighbouring abbot. Finally, 
regardless of the interests of his children, he makes over 
the whole of his property to the monastery on his 
estate. What will the king get from the monastery on 
the counts mentioned above? Nothing whatever. It 
must be made clear to the class that there will be no 
orphan sons, no heiresses, no intestacy, for a corporation 
cannot die, no escheat for treason, for monks do not rebel. 

If, then, many barons imitate B, what is the result 
to the king ? Poverty ; no pocket-money. How can he 
prevent this ? Evidently by forbidding the alienation of 
lands to corporations of this kind. 

The statement of the Statute of Mortmain can now 
follow. Its abstract nature has vanished. 

For small boys the Constitutions of Clarendon are 
equally unpromising. Here are some of them : — 

1. Bishops and abbots to be elected before the king's 
officer with the king's consent. 

2. Bishops to do homage to the king for their lands. 

3. Ecclesiastics not to leave the land without the king's 
consent. 



124 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

4. No tenant in chief to be excommunicated without the 
king's consent. 

5. The king's court to decide on the court to try cases 
between laymen and clerics. 

6. Clerks after conviction in ecclesiastical courts to be 
handed over to the lay courts. 

7. No appeal to be carried beyond the king's court {i.e. to 
Rome) without the king's consent. 

8. Villeins' sons not to be ordained without their lord's 
consent. 

Again the personal element will give meaning to 
these clauses. Becket's view of them is, of course, a 
text-book matter and, as stated in the text-book, is 
abstract ; but if his life is given with considerable detail 
this objection vanishes. A little imagination will help. 
A description of the feelings of the inferior clerk who 
has committed a misdemeanour, and who finds to his 
horror that ultimately he will be dealt with by an 
uncompromising bench of lay judges ; or of the villein's 
rage when he finds that his ambition to exchange the 
rigour of a villein's life for the comparative ease of a 
clerk's is frustrated by his lord, who wishes to retain a 
sufficient supply of labour on his estate. Enactments 
appear far more concrete if the way is paved for them, 
so that when they actually arrive they appear to the 
pupils to be overdue. Thus Magna Charta can be pre- 
pared for lessons in advance by keeping a black book 
of the grievances endured by barons, by merchants, 
and by villeins and the defenceless generally. In this 
book can be entered instances of wrongs received 
as they occur in the historical narrative. By 121 5 
the number and the gravity of these will constitute a 
scandal, and the action of the barons in demanding a 
definition of feudal dues, the proper administration of 



ON CONCRETE ILLUSTRATION 125 

justice, no imprisonment without trial, freedom of trade 
for merchants, and a reform of the forest laws will appear 
reasonable and indeed necessary. 

Religious changes and religious legislation present a 
greater difficulty. For a healthy boy the intensity of 
pure religious feeling is not easy to understand, and the 
religious feeling that arises out of nothing deeper than 
tradition or convention, but which is such a powerful 
motive when combined with party or class spirit, is 
wholly unintelligible to him. And yet in some periods 
of history the whole political situation depends upon the 
religious question, and in the text-book is frequently 
introduced by it. Here is a text-book sequence of the 
events at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign. 

Elizabeth's succession ; supported by Philip; her 
religious views ; the Church of England ; attitude of the 
people towards Elizabeth's religious reforms ; Elizabeth 's 
foreign policy ; her attitude towards the Huguenots and 
Catholics. 

Following this sequence the first lesson or lessons 
must be on Elizabeth's religious views. The formal 
treatment of the matter is easy enough. If we indicate 
the three parties in England — the Roman Catholics, the 
Moderates, and the Puritans — the boy may be led for 
himself to see that if she joined the Puritans she would 
alienate the Moderates and the Catholics, that if she 
joined the Catholics she would dissatisfy the Moderates 
and the Puritans and at the same time confess herself 
illegitimate, and that therefore her only plan was to steer 
a middle course between the two extremes and to 
commit herself to neither side. Kere the class may be 
induced to draw an inference, and working on these lines, 
if the mutual relations of England, Scotland, France, 



126 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

and Spain be given, and a blackboard map of Europe, 
in which the religion of each country is indicated by a 
characteristic shading is provided, may be exercised in 
considering how this middle position in religion would 
affect her relations with foreign countries. Undoubtedly 
boys can be made to reason thus ; but it is all in the air. 
The kings of Spain and of France, and the countries that 
they represent are little more than symbols. Guided by 
a strong teacher the class will juggle with these symbols. 

Let 1 represent a line of conduct. For 

A jC B 

political reasons it is unwise for Elizabeth to take up her 
position either at A or at B ; she therefore bisects the line 
and chooses C. This is barely a parody of the text-book. 
In a day-school a little more reality can be introduced 
by starting with something familiar to the boys. If it 
be asked how many of them are acquainted with the 
High and with the Evangelical churches in the town, 
how many know the Catholic and the Nonconformist 
chapels, the teacher will be overwhelmed by a list of places 
of worship, the greater part of which will often be new to 
him. The boys can then be made to realise the difference 
of ceremonial to be found in the various churches, and 
from this external standpoint an opportunity occurs 
for a little schematic work on the blackboard, e.g. 

In Elizabeth's time we have 

The Catholics. The Moderates. The Puritans. 

corresponding now to 

The Catholics. The High Church. The Low Church and 

Nonconformists. 

and it may be brought home to the class that the extreme 
High Church party does very fairly correspond to the 



ON CONCRETE ILLUSTRATION 127 

Moderate party of that date and represents the com- 
promise that Elizabeth most fancied. This linking of 
the past with the present may be emphasised by reading 
to the boys some of the thirty-nine Articles, not with 
the least intention of explaining them, but to show that 
they are really there in a book which the boys handle 
every Sunday, and that a portion of their weekly 
experience dates from this period. 

Still, after our best efforts, it must sorrowfully be 
confessed that the class does not as a rule display 
enthusiasm about the acts of Supremacy and Uniformity. 
They will learn their contents dutifully, but the whole 
business means very little to them. The fact is that 
we have committed a fatal error in following the 
sequence of the text-book in our presentation. If we 
link this legislation on to the concrete activities of the 
time we shall make our task easier. 

Consider the following document (an extract from a 
Statute of 1562) as a starting-point for the religious 
element. 

XIV. — And for increase of provision of fish by the more 
usual and common eating thereof, be it further enacted by the 
authority aforesaid, That from the feast of St. Michael the 
archangel in the year of our Lord one thousand five hundred 
sixty-four, every Wednesday in every week throughout the whole 
year, which, heretofore, hath not by the laws or customs of this 
realm been used and observed as a fish-day, and which shall 
not happen to fall in Christmas week or Easter week, shall be 
hereafter observed and kept, as the Saturdays in every week 
be or ought to be : (2) and that no manner of person shall 
eat any flesh on the same day, otherwise than ought to be 
upon the common Saturday. 

XXXIX. — And because no manner of person shall misjudge 
of the intent of this estatute, limiting orders to eat fish, and 
to forbear eating of flesh, but that the same is purposely 



128 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

intended and meant politically for the increase of fishermen 
and mariners, and repairing of port-towns and navigation, and 
not for any superstition to be maintained in the choice of 
meats. 

XL. — Be it enacted, That whosoever shall by preaching, 
teaching, writing or open speech notify, that any eating of 
fish, or forbearing of flesh, mentioned in this statute, is of any 
necessity for the saving of the soul of man, or that it is the 
service of God, otherwise than as other politick laws are and 
be ; that then such persons shall be punished as spreaders of 
false news are and ought to be. 

The seafaring life of the time makes a strong appeal 
to a boy's interests, and here we find the religious 
question arising out of it in the shape of an injunction 
to eat fish on certain days in order that a breed of 
sailors may be preserved. Why is all religious intent 
so violently disclaimed in section 40? Here is an 
occasion for revising the religious disputes, and for 
introducing the new legislation. Nor is this the only 
opportunity for doing so ; there are many connexions 
with the navy. Drake's father was a chaplain in the 
Royal Navy in the reign of Edward VI.; and the sailors 
in the south of England seem in general to have been 
Protestants, probably because their opponents the 
Spaniards were on the Catholic side. It was from the 
captain of a Huguenot privateer in the Spanish main 
that Drake learned of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, 
and later on his adventures give the teacher an opening for 
revising the Act of Uniformity. Drake has returned from 
Nombre de Dios, has come to anchor off Plymouth, and 
sends a boy on shore to announce his arrival. It happens 
to be Sunday morning and the boy finds the worthy 
inhabitants of Plymouth in church. He sings out to 
them that Drake is back ; upon which they promptly 



ON CONCRETE ILLUSTRATION 129 

leave the parson to preach to empty benches and rush 
down to the shore to catch the first sight of the ship. 

No matter how lamely he may tell the story of 
Drake's exploits, and of this dramatic home-coming, the 
teacher will have no difficulty in riveting the whole 
attention of his class, and here he can switch them off on 
to the Act of Uniformity. What was the interior of the 
church like ? Was there a crucifix ? Was Mass being 
celebrated? Were vestments worn? Were all the 
citizens there ? What was the penalty if they absented 
themselves ? The interest engendered by the " Sea-Dog " 
narrative will be transferred to the greyer matter of 
religion, and although it will evaporate by degrees, some 
minutes may elapse before the class realise that a march 
has been stolen upon them, and that they are paying 
whole-hearted attention to a subject hitherto regarded 
with suspicion. 

It is upon the skilful combination of small personal 
detail with the sterner facts and wider generalisations of 
history that the successful handling of this subject often 
depends. These small details can be obtained only from 
larger books. Such a work as Corbett's Drake and the 
Tudor Navy will furnish abundant material for the last- 
mentioned topic, and the numerous monographs on 
leading historical characters provide an ample store- 
house to draw from. The smaller schematic treatises 
do not provide the requisite material, since they 
are unable to devote sufficient space to the human 
side of historical characters. Their actors are but 
lay figures whose names stand for political ab- 
stractions. The ordinary voter at the polling-booth 
frequently cares more for the human side of the 
candidate than for his political views, and for the boy the 

9 



130 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

historical character must first be a human being before 
his moves in the game of statecraft will excite interest. 
It is commonplace to say that biography is an open 
gateway to history, but it is perhaps not always realised 
that unless the biography is made, in parts at any rate, 
extremely personal, it is for the boy not much less 
abstract than the ordinary historical narrative. 1 

Of especial value in this connexion are any facts that 
we can ascertain about the childhood and youth of 
historical characters, as these are nearer to our pupils' 
sympathies. In some cases a little imagination is 
necessary. It is easy to imagine the political echoes 
that found their way into the nursery of Edward III. 
His attendants with long faces must have talked to one 
another of the crushing defeat at Bannockburn, and 
have whispered that some one's incompetence was to 
blame. As he grew into boyhood the young prince 
must have realised that his father was despised by the 
more sturdy of his subjects, that he had a knack of 
choosing the wrong friends and that he was treated 
with scant regard by his wife ; and he must early have 
made up his mind that, at any cost, when the time came 
he would establish his authority in his country and 
make himself master in his own house. In each fresh 
chapter the text-books bring to the front fresh personages 
who appear on the scene as having success or notoriety. 
It is the genesis of this success that illuminates the 
situation, and it is this that we must try to give. Boys 
will be far more interested in the relations between 

1 An excellent series of biographies for school use is to be 
found in the series History in Biography, edited by Miss 
Beatrice Lees. The volumes are of unequal merit, but they are 
sympathetically written and abound in interesting detail. 



ON CONCRETE ILLUSTRATION 131 

Queen Mary and Elizabeth if they know something 
of their childhood ; if they realise their relative ages, 
on what occasions they were together in early life, 
where they lived, and what they were doing during the 
later years of Henry VIII. and the reign of Edward VI. 
Henry VIII.'s wives, if nothing more than a series of 
names, too often appear to boys as the nearest approach 
to an after-dinner jest that the text-book allows itself. 
Yet once detail is given they are interesting personalities. 
There is real pathos in the life of Catherine of Aragon 
and in her treatment by her husband, and unless the 
proper facts as to the characters and family connexions 
of Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour are known, it is 
difficult to appreciate the varying religious and political 
outlooks of Mary, Elizabeth, and Edward VI. In many 
cases it is through the personalities of great actors 
other than the kings (who often are only fit to appear as 
incidents in the lives of their own subjects) that we reach 
the inner history of movements. It is impossible to 
understand the early Church without some knowledge of 
the lives of Dunstan, Anselm, Becket, and Grossetete ; or 
the working of Feudalism without an acquaintanceship 
with men like Robert of Belleme, Hubert Walter, 
Hubert de Burgh, and Simon de Montfort. The ladies 
too have been unduly neglected. Sometimes a long- 
lived and sturdy queen will give unity and connexion 
to a series of rapidly shifting scenes. Margaret of 
Anjou is a good example. During a period when 
political parties were being formed and reformed with 
startling rapidity, and leaders were suffering defeat and 
death or retiring into obscurity with the most thought- 
less indifference to the feelings of the twentieth-century 
boy who was doomed to learn the list of their victories 



132 



TEACHING OF HISTORY 



and reverses, the figure of Margaret stands out like a 
landmark. A line of time placed on the blackboard and 
entered in the boys' notebooks will bring this home and 
will show how she was actively engaged through the 
whole of this dreary period, and outlived most of her 
friends and foes. 



Margaret of Anjou 
Is married to Henry VI. 



Is in opposition to Duke of York 
and Warwick. 



Attempts to arrest Earl of Salisbury. 1 
Summons Parliament at Coventry. J 
Flees to Harlech, then to Scotland. 

After^Towton escapes to Scotland 
again. 



1430 

1431 



1435 
1440 

I44S 

1447 

1450 

1453 
1455 



1459 
1460 

1461 



Joan of Arc burned, 
crowned at Paris. 
Bedford dies. 



Henry VI. 



Gloucester and Beaufort die. 
Suffolk murdered. 



Henry VI. ill. Prince Edward 
born. 

1st St. Albans. Somerset killed. 



Blore Heath. 



Duke 



Northampton. Wakefield. 

of York killed. 
Mortimer's Cross. 2nd St. Albans. 

Towton. 



ON CONCRETE ILLUSTRATION 133 



Goes to Louis XI. for help, and \ 1462 
returns to Scotland with troops. 



After Hexham is abroad for 7 years 
in poverty. 



Is reconciled to Warwick 

Taken prisoner after Tewkesbury and 
paraded in Edward's triumph. 



Is released from prison 



Dies in France in poverty 



1464 
1465 

1470 
1471 



1475 
1476 

1478 

1480 

1482 



1485 



Edward IV. marries El. Woodville. 

Hexham. 
Edward captures Henry VI. 



Clarence and Warwick invade Eng- 
land. Edward IV. to Flanders. 

Edward defeats and kills Warwick 
at Barnet. 

Margaret defeated at Tewkesbury. 
Henry VI. dies in Tower. 



Clarence executed. 



Edward IV. dies. 
Richard III. 



Edward V. 



Bosworth. 



Almost all the incidents in Margaret's career that are 
entered on this table are of an adventurous kind, and 
her courage and enterprise never fail to prove attractive. 

Less exciting but of greater importance to an under- 
standing of his period is the life of Burleigh. A section 
of the boy's notebook may well be reserved for him. It 
is suggested that the left-hand page may be occupied by 
a line of time, and that the opposite page may be filled 
with quotations, references, and expansions of details, 
and further facts about his life. The following extract 
taken from such a notebook will make this clear : — 



134 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

1520 Burleigh born. Field of Cloth of Gold. 

Father a substantial squire and favourite at Court : gets money 
from monastery funds. 



1530 At School at Grantham. 



1535 At St. John's College, Cambridge. Hired bell-ringers to call 
him at four in morning. Greek scholar. Friend of Cheke, 
afterwards tutor to Edward VI. 



1540 

1 541 At Gray's Inn. 

1542 Disputes with chaplains at Court and wins Henry's favour. 



1547 At Pinkie. 

1548 Secretary to Somerset. 

1549 Cecil keeps very quiet. When Somerset goes to Tower all his 
friends imprisoned except Cecil. 

1350 Now living at Wimbledon and at Cannon Row, Westminster. 
Secretary of State. Carries out wishes of Council without 
imposing his own views. 

1551 "The realm cannot be rich whose coin is base"; but he puts 
through the debasement of the coinage. 

1552 42 Articles referred by Cranmer to Cecil. 

1553 Is "ill" when Northumberland wishes to exclude Mary from 
succession ; but he had to sign document at last. Afterwards 
excuses himself to Mary. 

1554 Conforms, as a Catholic. 

1555 In Parliament for Lincolnshire. 

1556 In Elizabeth's confidence and manages her business affairs. 

1557 

1558 Appointed Secretary of State under Elizabeth. 

1559 
1560 



ON CONCRETE ILLUSTRATION 135 

Hard worker except at meals, when he chatted wittily, but 
never of business. Played no games ; not sportsman. 

Maxims for his son : "Beware of being surety for thy best 
friends : he that payeth another man's debts seeketh his own 
decay." " Be sure to keep some great man thy friend, but 
trouble him not with trifles ; compliment him often with many yet 
small gifts." " Towards thy superiors be humble yet generous ; 
with thine equals familiar yet respectful ; towards thine inferiors 
show much humanity and some familiarity, as to bow the body, 
stretch forth the hand, and to uncover the head." 

1552. Cecil's note as to question "Whether the King's 
Majesty shall enter into the aid of the Emperor." 
Answer: He shall. 

1. The King is bound by the treaty, and if he will be helped 
by the treaty he must do his part. 

2. If he do not aid, the Emperor is like to ruin, and conse- 
quently the House of Burgundy come to the French possession, 
which is perilous to England, and herein the greatness of the 
French King is dreadful. 

3. The French King brings the Turk into Christendom. 

4. If the Emperor is forced to come to terms with the French 
King the danger is greater, (a) the Emperor's offence for lack 
of aid ; (b) the French King's enterprises towards us. 

5. Merchants be so evil used that some remedy must be sought. 

Answer: He shall not. 

1. The aid is too expensive. 

2. If the Emperor should die we should be alone in the war. 

3. The German Protestants may be offended. 

4. Our friendship with France may improve. 

A middle way. 
So to help the Emperor that we may also join with other 
Christian Princes and conspire against the French King as a 
common enemy to Christendom. 

Reason for this. 
The cause is common, and therefore there will be more parties 
to it. Reason against. 

The treaty must be with so many parties that it can be neither 
speedily nor secretly concluded. 

(To this the King adds in his boyish hand.) 
Conclusion. — The treaty to be made with the Emperor and by 
the Emperor's means with other princes. 1 

J Quoted from the memorandum in Sir William Cecil's handwriting by Martin A. S. 
Hume, The Great Lord Burleigh, 1898, p. 33. 



•136 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

Set out on a moderate scale, the complete line of 
time for Burleigh, with fragments of detail on the 
opposite page, will occupy some six or eight sides of 
the boy's notebook. Some judgment is, of course, 
required in deciding whether certain events shall be 
entered under this heading or shall be placed in a more 
general sequence. The value of the detail brought in 
under the heading of " Cecil's note " needs no comment. 
It gives an opportunity from the personal standpoint of 
going into the political problems of the period, and also 
affords a good illustration of Burleigh's laborious habit 
of considering every side of a question. For working 
purposes one instance of this is enough. Some teachers 
might prefer to select their instance a few years later 
on, in connexion with a more important problem ; but 
perhaps it is well to indicate Burleigh's character early 
in the proceedings. 

With small boys it is often desirable to ask them to 
compare in their minds two personalities to whom they 
are introduced. For instance, in the reign of Elizabeth, 
as soon as Mary Queen of Scots comes on the stage as 
an important actor the class may be told that at the end 
of a few lessons they will be asked to write a short essay 
on the respective characters of the Queens. This 
procedure gives them a private standpoint from which 
to observe the facts placed before them, and such a 
standpoint is the surest aid to attention. Many adults 
fall asleep during a dull sermon, but there are few who 
could not keep awake and attend if they were asked to 
make a private report upon the ability or the reverse of 
the preacher ; if, in fact, they were given some reason 
for attending. In the early stages it is not of much use 
to give this injunction in general terms without first 



ON CONCRETE ILLUSTRATION 137 

explaining that a general view of character can be 
attained only by observing the actions of any one in 
detail. This can be brought home by a little personal 
allusion. "Jones, if you wish to make up your mind 
about Brown's character, how do you begin ? " Make it 
clear that the only method is to watch Brown on various 
occasions and notice if he speaks the truth, if he cribs, 
if he is punctual, if he is hard-working, if he is generous, 
and so on, and by a generalisation from these details to 
reach some view as to his character. The application 
to the personages in the lesson can now be made. What 
are you going to look out for in Elizabeth and Mary ? 
Instances where they tell the truth or lie, where they 
are merciful or the reverse, where they are stingy or 
extravagant, where they ^excite enthusiasm in their 
followers or fail to do so. The danger of premature 
generalisation must also be guarded against. When the 
Lords of Congregation rebelled, Elizabeth helped them, 
only to vow, after they had been beaten, that she did not. 
" Brown, what does this tell us about Elizabeth's 
character ? " Brown, with great promptness, " She was 
a liar, sir." " But, Brown, yesterday you told me that 
you were not eating in class when you obviously were. 
Am I on that account to take it for granted that you 
never tell the truth ? " Consternation and collapse of 
Brown, and occasion for a short homily upon the iniquity 
of drawing conclusions too soon. 

It is a common maxim that boys should never be 
given the characters of historical personages, but should 
work them out for themselves from the facts of conduct. 
Like so many other maxims of teaching, this only 
indicates a mode of procedure which is useful and 
may be employed when suitable. In certain cases the 



138 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

character of a prominent actor, e.g. of Charles I., may 
be the key to the whole situation, and unless some clue 
is given to it at the beginning, or a very premature 
generalisation is permitted and afterwards amplified, the 
inwardness and the connexion of events will be but 
poorly understood. 

Unless care be taken, no portion of the text-book 
symbolism tends to be more abstract than that of 
chronology. It must never be forgotten that the boy's 
sense of time is very weak. That of the adult has been 
educated by the experience of events covering a stretch 
of thirty years, while the boy's life of memory averages 
only ten. If his power of casting back is weak, his 
power of casting forward is even weaker. An imposition 
that has to be shown up in a few days is dismissed 
lightly from the mind in the vague hope that something 
may turn up before that remote period arrives. In the 
same spirit a man might readily promise to meet a 
liability in ten years' time. 

The relation of the history teacher to chronology is 
twofold : it is for him both a subject to teach and an 
instrument to train with. Unless the pupil's time-sense 
has been educated, the facts of history, which cannot 
be divorced from their chronological connexion, will be 
unintelligible to him, and it is the function of chronology 
to give this education. Other subjects in the curriculum, 
music for instance, are of use in this connexion, but the 
chronological element in history is the most important. 

Two not uncommon practices on the part of history 
teachers militate against the growth of the time-sense. 
Boys are often rapidly transferred from one isolated 
period to another. In one term or year they are working 
at a period of Roman History, in the next they are 



ON CONCRETE ILLUSTRATION 139 

introduced to the Reformation in England, and this 
may be followed by a dose of Feudalism under the 
Norman kings. Or again, the boy may complete a 
period of Roman History, and then for purposes of an 
external examination suddenly be transferred to a period 
of English History, while in his mind the intervening 
stretch of years is left a blank. Such a treatment of the 
sequence of events is more likely to disorganise what 
time-sense may be there than to develop it. This error 
of arrangement is, however, easily recognised, and the 
remedy is easy to find. 

More serious because more elusive is the habit of 
treating the facts of history as conveying ethical maxims, 
and in this way of confounding the present and the past : 
of presenting together the characters of Cincinnatus, Sir 
Thomas More, and General Gordon as examples of 
conduct good for all time. In this way the idea of 
change in time is weakened, the difference between the 
then and the now is concealed, and the erroneous notion 
is fostered that there is no true history, no development. 
Historical novels can be great offenders in this respect. 
Their errors of fact may be forgiven them — indeed the 
correcting of these is a good exercise — but the false 
atmosphere that surrounds the events, equally untrue for 
all periods and equally serviceable for all, since it is not 
aggressively modern, does not serve to impress deeply 
upon the reader the great gulf that separates age 
from age. 

It is easy to avoid these errors of treatment, and a 
more positive method is within reach. Chronology can 
be made concrete, the flow of time can be stated in 
terms of space, and through the device of the line of 
tune the chief events of 10, 100, or 1000 years can be 



140 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

depicted, and their relative position made clear at a 
glance. This device is too well known to need much 
description in detail, but it is often neglected, and a few 
words may be said as to its value. 

It is as easy to over-use the blackboard as to neglect 
it ; indeed no teaching is worse than that which plasters 
the blackboard with names and dates which are in the 
text-book and can be consulted there, or if they are not, 
can be dictated to the boys for insertion in their note- 
books. For much writing on the blackboard takes a 
long time and prevents the teacher from paying full 
attention to his class : it should therefore be restricted 
to essentials. In every lesson, however, that is con- 
cerned with a series of events a few names and catch- 
words on the blackboard are necessary, and it is fre- 
quently advisable to arrange these in a line of time. 
To facilitate this there should be on the left-hand edge 
of the blackboard a line in white paint divided at 
intervals of six inches. These divisions may represent 
i year, 10 years, or ioo years according to the scale of 
events treated of, and it is as easy to jot down a short 
list of events in connexion with this line as to do so 
independently of it. In a lesson on the Parliaments of 
Charles I. the catchwords on the blackboard might be as 
follows : — 

1625. 1 st Parliament. Insufficient grants for war. 

1626. 2nd Parliament. Impeachment of Buckingham. 

1628. 3rd Parliament. Petition of Right. Assassination of 
Buckingham. 

1629. Protests against illegal taxation. Dissolution of 
Parliament. 

1640. Short Parliament (4th). Long Parliament (5th). 

1 64 1. Triennial Act. 

These catchwords, as they stand, would be of use in 



ON CONCRETE ILLUSTRATION 141 

aiding the boy's attention, but it takes no longer to 
write them as follows, and the arrangement brings out 
the meaning of the whole situation far better : — 
1620 I 



1625 
1626 
1627 
1628 
1629 
1630 



1640 

1641 



Charles I. 1st Parliament. Insufficient grants for war. 
2nd Parliament. Impeachment of Buckingham. 

3rd Parliament. Petition of Right. Assassination of Buckingham. 
Protests against illegal taxation. Dissolution of Parliament. 



Short Parliament (4th). -Long Parliament (5th). 
Triennial Act. 



Or again, consider the career of Mary Queen of Scots 
when set out as follows : — 

1540 

1542 



1545 

1548 
1550 



1555 



Mary born. 



Sent to France. 



142 TEACHING OF HISTORY 



1558 

1559 
1560 
1561 



1565 
1566 

1567 
1568 

1570 



1575 
1580 

1585 
1587 



Married to Dauphin. 
Henry of France dies. 

Francis dies. Mary returns to Scotland. 



Marries Darnley. 

Murder of Rizzio. Prince James born. 

Murder of Darnley. Mary marries Bothwell. Imprisoned at 

Lochleven. 
Mary in England. Imprisoned at Bolton. 



Beheaded at Fotheringay. 



1590 I 
If the events are spaced out in this manner it is 
brought home to the pupil that Mary was in France 
during all her early years, that she was Queen of France 
for a very short time, that her residence in Scotland as 
Queen was short, although as far as action and excite- 
ment went extremely full, while for nearly twenty years, 
almost half her life, she was in England, either in prison 
or under close surveillance. A mere knowledge of the 
dates does not give to the full the sense of proportion or 
of relative duration. Indeed an extensive knowledge of 



ON CONCRETE ILLUSTRATION 143 

dates is neither necessary nor desirable ; with a few land- 
marks the boy must of course be familiar, but during the 
term comparatively little stress should be laid upon 
memory work of this kind. Any teacher of experience 
knows that there are boys who can rattle off dates glibly, 
but who, if asked, take time to consider whether a certain 
event took place before or after another. Memorising 
of dates may therefore be postponed until immediately 
before the terminal or yearly examination. 

A very little practice will get the teacher into the 
habit of frequently using such lines of time when at work. 
In many cases they should be entered in the boys' note- 
books, and often it is well that they should be taken 
down as they are put upon the blackboard. If a rule be 
made that boys are to take down everything of £ formal 
nature that is placed on the blackboard, the teacher will 
be stimulated to prepare his blackboard work with some 
care, and will avoid using it to no purpose ; but this is 
perhaps a counsel of perfection. It is often of the greatest 
use to have permanently on the class-room wall a line of 
time showing the main events in the whole period taken 
during the term. This can be filled in as the term 
proceeds, and lends itself to rapid recapitulation ; it can 
be placed upon a strip of blackboard cloth 8 ft. long, and 
the use of different coloured chalks to denote different 
types of events increases both its clearness and its 
suggestiveness. 

Genealogies, or a complicated group of relationships, 
are to the average boy quite as abstract as chronology ; 
and the genealogical table of convention as often used 
can be very little illuminating. The following table, for 
example, is not calculated to make a boy's pulse quicken 
with the romance of kingship and of royal vicissitudes : — 



144 



TEACHING OF HISTORY 



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ON CONCRETE ILLUSTRATION 145 

In no period of English History is it more necessary 
to understand the relationships of the various characters, 
and in none is it harder to do so. The death struggle 
of the feudal system in England has in it so many 
elements of real importance, that in spite of its petty 
complexity it is impossible to suggest its omission from 
the school course. Indeed if there were no other reason 
it would be a sufficient warrant for its retention that 
many of Shakespeare's Historical Plays treat of this 
period. Yet, unless the genealogies are understood, the 
sequence of events means little, while a thorough grip 
of the table given above is not easy for the average boy 
to attain without a great expenditure of time and effort 
on the part of both pupil and master. 

Some general remarks upon the treatment of such 
schemes are not out of place. Genealogical tables should 
be in the text-book, and indeed are to be found in all 
good ones ; but this is not enough. They are there for 
revision purposes only, and their first presentation to the 
boy should be on a larger scale. A convenient method 
is to write the genealogy clearly on a blackboard sheet 
and to let it hang in view of the class during every lesson. 
No pressure should be put upon the pupils to commit it 
to memory until the examination is approaching ; even 
the attempt to revise the important relationships 
" without book " at the beginning of the hour takes a 
long time if the weaker boys are attended to, and this 
time can be more profitably spent. With the table 
before their eyes it is not difficult to revise briefly. Yet 
this apparently mechanical process demands that the 
boys shall understand how to read a genealogy, and 
the writer has on several occasions been surprised to find 
that boys even of fourteen make ludicrous mistakes and 

10 



146 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

find a great difficulty in describing relationships as thus 
set forth. Assuming that some preliminary drill has 
been given, the lesson can begin by a few questions on 
relationships. What relation was Henry IV. to the 
Black Prince ? Was Henry V. to the Earl of Somerset, 
to the Duke of Somerset? Was Richard Duke of 
York to Henry VI.? Was Edmund Mortimer to Richard 
Duke of York ? Was Catherine of France to Henry V.'s 
brothers ? These questions appear trivial ; a short ex- 
perience shows that they are not unnecessary. When 
the table is there, and is understood, even a stupid boy 
should be able to answer questions as to the relative 
validity of the claims to the throne of Edward IV. and 
of Henry VI., or of Richard III. and Henry VII., and 
will see at a glance that the birth of a son to Henry VI. 
made civil war almost inevitable. If the table is not 
in evidence, the chances in favour of wrong answers are 
great, and valuable time is wasted. 

The genealogy given above needs to be supplemented 
by others on a larger scale such as the following :— 



ON CONCRETE ILLUSTRATION 



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148 



TEACHING OF HISTORY 



On this table exercises of the same type can be given, 
and human interest can be introduced if the teacher runs 
over it rapidly and gives a few details about each 
personage, thus bringing home to the class that the 
Beauforts were a united family and an important factor 
in the politics of the time. Here the Dictionary of 
National Biography is a great stand-by if the teacher 
is fortunate enough to have access to it. 

For entering in the boys' notebooks a simplified form 
of such a genealogy as the first one given is desirable. 

Edward III. 



Duke of Clarence. Blanche = John of Gaunt = K. Swynford. Duke of York. 



* £' 



Richard Duke of York 
(by mother). 



Edward IV. 



Henry IV. 

I 
Henry V. 

I 
Henry VI. 



wo 



Henry VII. 

(by mother). 



Richard 
Duke of York. 



Edward IV. Richard III. 



Simplifications of this kind are also desirable in a 
more formal scheme, to avoid overcrowding. The 
following is a good example and is of additional interest 
because it illustrates in a striking manner the violent 
end that was the lot of those who had any claim to the 
throne. With this genealogy on the wall there are 
many opportunities of spending a few moments over 
the deaths of the Poles and the Buckinghams. 



ON CONCRETE ILLUSTRATION 149 



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150 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

It remains to consider the most obvious method of 
concrete illustration, the use of maps and pictures. For 
all history teaching an outline map of England or of 
Great Britain and Western Europe on a blackboard 
sheet is highly desirable. On this the routes of armies 
and the journeys of princes can rapidly be sketched and 
distributions of population can be indicated. No word 
of mouth explanation will bring home to a class the 
reasons for the Earl of Warwick's influence in the 
fifteenth century so well as a map of England on which 
his own estates and those of his relatives are indicated 
by bold crosses in chalk ; the life history of Margaret of 
Anjou cannot be summarised so effectively as by an 
itinerary drawn on the map, with dates affixed, of her 
journeys between France, England, and Scotland. 
Further illustration of this is unnecessary, but it may 
be feared that the ease of the method has not ensured its 
common use. 

Of the employment of portraits and other pictorial 
illustrations it is not possible to speak at length in this 
book, and the general remarks that can be made on the 
- subject are few. Here it may suffice to note that there 
should be a good supply of portraits both in the pupils' 
text-books and source-books and on the walls of the 
class-room, and that the pupils should be made to study 
them carefully. Much interesting work may be done in 
connexion with the coats-of-arms and insets of various 
kinds to be found in old engravings, and these oppor- 
tunities should not be neglected. In recent school-books 
the number of portrait illustrations has been increased 
and their quality has improved ; but the teacher is often 
hampered by the omission on the part of the writer to 
state the source from which the illustration was taken. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE ORGANISATION OF HISTORY TEACHING 

Where is the time to come from, for the methods here 
recommended ? This question, which doubtless occurred 
to the reader during the first few chapters, has by this 
time been definitely formulated in his mind, and the 
question is a pertinent one. Exercises have been 
suggested whose working and revision with a class may 
easily occupy the whole of a preparation hour and of a 
school hour ; the average number of hours devoted to 
history in the school year is as a rule not more than 72, 
and sometimes only half this number, while not un- 
frequently a stretch of from 200 to 400 years has to be 
covered in the time. When periods of this length are 
in question, merely to get through the text-book with 
some explanatory remarks and to make the class write 
a few papers will tax the strength of even a methodical 
teacher. 

Before proceeding to answer our question it may be 
well to pass in review a few educational positions that 
commend themselves to the common sense of those 
whose experience of boys is wide. 

The subjects of instruction in school are not taught 
in order that at the conclusion of the course a boy may 
have an expert knowledge of them. This is rendered 

151 



152 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

impossible, even if it were desirable, both by the number 
of subjects taught and by the boy's instinct of self- 
preservation which apparently leads him to forget almost 
everything that he learns as soon as the examination is 
over. 1 It follows from this that school studies must be 
looked upon as a preparation for or prolegomena to work 
that is to come later, whether this is the expert study 
of a special subject for professional or scientific purposes, 
or the general conduct of life in a business calling. In 
consequence all attempt at giving a complete presentation 
of any subject must be relinquished. The teaching 
should be sufficiently wide for the pupil to gather some 
idea of the scope of the subject and the relation in which 
it stands to other subjects, and sufficiently intensive to 
introduce him to the methods of reasoning or of 
manipulation peculiar to the subject. It should thus 
give him some mental training while at the same time 
adding to his stock of ideas. The function of the 
teacher is here an excessively delicate one, since he has 
to use his subject as an instrument for training his pupil, 
and has at the same time to preserve its scientific aspect. 
If one side of this process is neglected, or if one side is 
unduly pressed, the subject may become valueless as a 
school study. In attacking a problem of this kind it 
is above all essential to have had a considerable experi- 
ence of the class-room, to have acquired that sixth sense 
of school-masters, a feeling for the aspect of a subject 
that makes boys think and work with zest ; and it is 
precisely upon these questions that the specialist in the 
1 It may surprise those who have never taught to hear that a 
boy, and by no means an exceptionally stupid boy, may fail after 
the summer holidays to remember not merely the details, but 
even the outline of the work done in a school study during the 
previous year. 



ORGANISATION OF HISTORY TEACHING 153 

subject whose acquaintance with boys is small is inclined 
to lay down the law with assurance. A pamphlet by 
Professor Tout, recently printed by the Historical As- 
sociation, affords a good illustration of this, and a brief 
consideration of some of the conclusions reached in it 
will clear the ground for the argument of this chapter. 1 

Professor Tout's argument may be given briefly in 
his own words : — " The ideal of the teacher should be so 
to plan his historical course as to give his pupils a broad 
sweep of historical development, and not to drill them in 
the details of any of the corners of history." " We must 
therefore in the necessity of the case rigidly limit our- 
selves to outlines and definitely set our face against the 
detailed study of special periods. If we do not, we fail 
to accomplish the most primary objects for which all 
historical instruction is given." The period differs from 
the outline only in conveying more detail. " A period 
has to be got up in a text-book, which differs from 
smaller text-books only in being more detailed and 
therefore more wearisome," and Professor Tout ques- 
tions the value of "a few lurid patches of detailed 
knowledge in the midst of a dark background of 
profound ignorance." 2 

1 Outlines v. Periods, by Professor T. F. Tout, Professor of 
Mediaeval and Modern History in the University of Manchester, 
1907. 

2 Among the advantages that Professor Tout imagines to be 
claimed for the "period" are the following: (1) It is more 
interesting. (2) It prevents superficiality. (3) It is easier to 
teach. (4) It is the easiest way to score marks in examinations. 

(5) It enables one to show the relations of cause and effect. 

(6) " It gives the scholar that drilling in detailed knowledge 
which trains the mind almost as much as a course of irregular 
verbs or of syntactical rules." These, it must be understood, are 
not Professor Tout's own arguments, indeed he proceeds to 



154 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

Now no one is likely to deny that a course in history 
should convey a notion of the broad sweep of historical 
development, but there seems to be no adequate reason 
for concluding either that we must definitely set our 
faces against the detailed study of special periods, or 
that " a period must be got up in a text-book which 
differs from other text - books only in being more 
detailed." For the moment, however, these two points 
may be left on one side. The main argument seems 
to be that an outline of general history should be given, 
and in this connexion the programmes of work prescribed 
for French and for Prussian schools are alluded to with 
approbation. It will therefore be well to examine these 
programmes in detail. 

demolish them. But he evidently considers them plausible, and 
they are therefore full of interest as indicating the general attitude 
towards educational reasoning of the type of academic mind that 
in the long run often controls our school curricula. Of these 
arguments i and 2 may be passed. 3 is an extraordinary state- 
ment unless the definition of a period given by Professor Tout 
(and quoted above) is adopted. 4 is correct only on the 
assumption that no examiners understand or are competent to 
learn their business. 5 may be passed. 6 is valuable as a key 
to the writer's mind. Surely no one has ever claimed that a 
drilling in detailed knowledge trains the mind. Not even the 
most abandoned advocate of classical study for its formal value 
has ever argued that " a course of irregular verbs or of syntactical 
rules " trained the mind per se. The application of the rules in 
worrying out a text or in writing composition may do so, but not 
the drilling in detail. 



ORGANISATION OF HISTORY TEACHING 155 
Syllabus of History for Prussian Secondary Schools 




VI. 

V. 

IV. 
III. B 



III. A 



II. B 



II. A 



I. B 



I. A 



Biographies from German History. 
Stories from the legends of classical antiquity : Greek, 
up to Solon ; Roman, up to the War with Pyrrhus. 
Greek History up to the death of Alexander the Great. 
Roman History up to the death of Augustus. 
The Roman Empire under the Great Emperors. 
German History from the first contact of the Germans 
with the Romans up to the end of the Middle Ages. 
German History from the close of the Middle Ages up 
to Frederick the Great, with particular attention to 
the History of Brandenburg and of Prussia. 
German and Prussian History from Frederick the Great 

to the present day. 
The chief events of Greek History up to the death of 
Alexander the Great, and of Roman History up to 
Augustus, with references to Oriental History. 
Revision of the chief events and dates of German 

History. 
The most important of the Roman Emperors. German 

History up to the end of the Thirty Years' War. 
Revision of the chief events and dates in ancient history. 
The history of Prussia and of Germany from the end of 
the Thirty Years' War to the present day. 



With all the periods of modern History, European history 
is to be taught so far as it is necessary for the understanding 
of German history. 

Extract from the instructions to teachers : — 

" For the teaching of history from the IV. Class to the 
Upper I. the following apparatus is necessary : Text-books 
providing a continuous narrative, a historical atlas, a scheme 
of the dates that have to be learned, which may also serve 
as a basis for revision, pictures and other suitable matter to 
give life to the pupils' historical ideas. 

"As far as is possible the pupils must be practised in the 
history lesson in giving in their own words a connected 
narrative of what they have learned." 



156 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

Syllabus of History for French Secondary 
Schools 



Class. 


No. of 
Hours 
Weekly. 




IOth 


I 


Stories of the great personalities and great events of the 


9th 
8th 


I 

:f 


national history. 
Stories of the great personalities and great events of the 

national history. 
From the beginnings of French History up to 1610. 


7th 
6th 


1610-1871. 

History of ancient civilisations : Egypt, Chaldsea, the 






Jews, the Phoenicians, the Persians. 






Greek History up to Alexander the Great. Roman 


5 th 




History up to Theodosius. 
History of France from the earliest times up to the end 
of the Hundred Years' War. The important elements 


4th 




of European History during this period. 
The Renaissance up to Louis XVI. 


3rd 
2nd 




1791-1889. 

Oriental History as in the 6th class. 
History of Greece up to its conquest. 
French History up to Louis XIV., with particular 
reference to European politics, and English History 


ISt 




up to 1 7 14. 
Roman History, from the earliest times up to the 

tenth century. 
Modern History, from Louis XV. up to the Treaty of 

Paris. 
Philosophy. European History, from the Congress of 

Vienna to the present day. 



Method suggested for classes up to the 7 th. Short sum- 
maries to be dictated. Simple stories to be narrated. Short 
lectures. 



Complete Syllabus for the 7TH Class (Average 
Age about 12) 

Louis XIII. and Richelieu. The siege of Rochelle. 
Execution of Montmorency. The war against the Spanish. 
Conde" at Rocroi. 



ORGANISATION OF HISTORY TEACHING i 57 

Distress at the time of the Fronde. Charity of St. 
Vincent de Paul. 

Louis XIV. The Court at Versailles. Colbert, the 
merchants, the artisans, and the peasants. Turenne in 
Alsace, Jean Bart. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 
The Duke of Anjou proclaimed King of Spain. 

The last years of Louis XIV. Distress in the kingdom. 

Louis XV. Maurice de Saxe at Fontenoy. Dupleix at 
Pondicherry. Montcalm in Canada. 

Louis XVI. and Turgot. Franklin and Voltaire. La 
Fayette in America. The fight of the Belle Poule. Death 
of la Perouse. 

The Constituent Assembly. The deputies playing tennis. 
Mirabeau and the Marquis of Deux-Breze. The taking of 
the Bastille. The night of the 4th of August. 

The festival of the Federation. The flight of the King 
and his return to Paris. 

The voluntary enlistments. Proclamation of the Republic. 
Valmy. The National Convention. The Death of the 
Girondins. Carnot, the Republican Armies. Jourdain at 
Fleurus. 

The Directory. Bonaparte at Arcole ; in Egypt. Mass^na 
at Zurich. 

The Consulate. Crossing of the Great St. Bernard. 
Desaix at Marengo. Moreau at Hohenlinden. 

The Empire. Napoleon Emperor. Austerlitz. Jena. 
Napoleon and Alexander of Russia at Tilsit. The King 
of Rome. The retreat from Russia. General Elbe" at 
the BeVesina. The conscripts of 181 3 at Lutzen. Farewell 
to Fontainebleau. 

The hundred days. The Guard at Waterloo. Napoleon 
at St. Helena. 

Comparison between the frontiers of France in 1800 and 
in 1815. 

France from 181 5 to 1848. The French in the War of 
Greek Independence. 

Taking of Algiers. Taking of Constantine. Bugeaud and 
Abd-el-Kader. The French in the War of Belgian Inde- 
pendence. The first steam-boats and the first railways. 



158 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

The Revolution of 1848. Universal Suffrage. Lamartine 
at the Hotel de Ville. 

The Coup cCEtat of December 1851. 

The second Empire. The Crimean War. Sebastopol. 
The French in the Italian War of Independence. Solferino. 
The electric telegraph. The great Exhibitions of 1855 and 
1867. The opening of the Suez Canal. 

The Franco-German War. The Invasion of Alsace. The 
battles round Metz. Sedan. 

The proclamation of the Republic. The siege of Paris. 
Gambetta at Tours. Chanzy and the army of the Loire. 
Faidherbe and the army of the north. Denfert-Rochereau at 
Belfort. The Treaty of Frankfort. Thiers and the redemp- 
tion of the country. 

Comparison between the frontiers of France in 181 5 and 
in 1871. 

Complete Syllabus for the 4TH Class (Average 
Age about 15) 

Maritime discoveries and establishment of colonies. 
Spices and the precious metals. 

The Renaissance. The artists and their works. 

State of Western Europe at the end of the fifteenth century. 
France, Spain, Germany, Italy, and England. 

The struggle between the houses of France and Austria. 
The empire of Charles V. 

The Reformation. Luther and Calvin. Anglicanism. 
Catholic reform. The Jesuits. The Council of Trent. 

The religious wars. Calvinism in France. Massacre of 
Saint Bartholomew. The League. The Edict of Nantes. 
Part played by Spain under Philip II. 

General Character and Result of the Thirty Years' War. 
The Treaties of Westphalia and of the Pyrenees. 

Establishment of absolute monarchy in France. Francis I. 
Henry I. Richelieu. Mazarin. 

Louis XIV. Foreign policy. The court, the government, 
policy in religious matters. Revocation of the Edict of 
Nantes. Colbert ; industries, trade, navy. 



ORGANISATION OF HISTORY TEACHING 159 

Society in the seventeenth century. The clergy, the 
nobility, the towns, the peasants. 

Material condition of France during the reign of Louis XIV. 

French art in the seventeenth century. The great writers. 
The chief buildings. 

England in the seventeenth century. The revolutions of 
1648 and 1688. 

France under Louis XV. Absolute monarchy. The 
Parliaments. 

England in the thirteenth century. The parliamentary 
rigime. 

Prussia. Frederick II. 

Austria. Maria Theresa and Joseph II. 

The Russian Empire. Peter the Great. Catherine II. 

Foreign policy in the eighth century. Struggle between 
Prussia and Austria. Partition of Poland. Struggle between 
France and England. India and Canada. 

France before the Revolution. Material condition. 
Town and country. New ideas. Public opinion and 
the government. 

Louis XVI. The financial crisis. The convocation of 
the States General. 

As an examination of these syllabuses shows, both 
the German and the French schemes ensure a complete 
course of Universal History for the pupils in secondary 
schools. There are some differences of detail. In the 
German schools this course is gone through twice ; in 
the French schools the course of Universal History is 
covered twice and that of French History three times. 
In the French course is included a sketch of Eastern 
History ; in the German course this does not appear in 
the History syllabus, as the subject-matter is given in 
connexion with the Scripture lesson. 

To one who turns to these syllabuses from the frag- 
mentary and ill-arranged provision made for history in 
some English secondary schools the contrast is a striking 



160 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

one, and the advantage seems to be wholly on the side 
of Germany and France ; but a little further considera- 
tion raises questions. The syllabuses are full and 
exacting : in the French scheme they are markedly so, 
as can be seen from those quoted in full for the 7th and 
4th classes. It is evidently intended that the successive 
periods of history shall be displayed before the pupils 
on a uniform scale, and that the amount of detail is to 
be considerable ; while from the general tenor of the 
instructions given it appears that the attitude of the 
class is to be mainly receptive. 

Now in both Germany and France, especially in the 
latter country, the complaint is loudly made that the 
schools tend to overburden the memory of their pupils, 
the result being fatigue and overpressure without any 
counterbalancing training of faculty. Given syllabuses of 
this length and the conception of a uniform scale of pre- 
sentation, it is difficult to imagine any other result. Let 
any one select one of the periods above suggested for a 
year's work, and consider how much time he will have 
for the kind of detail that is desirable, for considerations 
of cause and effect, of motive and of character, after he 
has worked through the topics of a rigid syllabus. For 
the type of work that has been suggested in previous 
chapters there is no time whatever. For the teacher a 
methodical presentation based on the text-book, and for 
the pupil the memorising of facts is the almost certain 
result of syllabuses such as these ; and let it be repeated 
that the facts learned are soon forgotten, that the 
mastery of a condensed syllabus does not induce the 
interest which leads to private reading at a later stage, 
and that the whole business may easily degenerate into 
cram of the most unsatisfactory kind. 



ORGANISATION OF HISTORY TEACHING 161 

In contrast to such a method a more effective mode of 
teaching is to treat small portions of a subject intensively 
so that they stand out with vividness against a back- 
ground of routine-work, and in a setting that gives their 
relation to the rest of the subject. Without doubt it is 
necessary to give to a middle-school boy some notion of 
the sequence of events in Universal History. A know- 
ledge of a particular period is no knowledge at all unless 
it stands in close connexion with the period that precedes ; 
an acquaintanceship with English History is but half- 
made unless its relation to European History is grasped ; 
an understanding of events in England down to 1830 
will not attain fruition if the history of recent social and 
political movements is omitted ; the whole conception 
of chronological sequence may be destroyed if the years 
between the Emperor Augustus and Alfred the Great 
are left as void of content as the " unexplored territory " 
on the older maps of Africa. To admit this, however, 
is not to accept Professor Tout's proposition. Let an 
outline be given by all means, but let it be realised that 
it is there to serve as a setting for the period, that the 
presentation of history to boys on a uniform scale is the 
surest way of reducing it to an arid memory subject, 
that there are periods of mediaeval history which for 
school purposes can be covered in a couple of half-hour 
talks, and sections of European History that may be 
presented and explained in a couple of school periods. 
The device of combining a special with a general period 
for a year's work, or of selecting out of a period of fair 
length a certain number of topics or episodes which 
shall receive attention on a much larger scale is a 
legitimate and a practical solution of our difficulty. 
Let us consider some schemes of English History which 

11 



162 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

embody this combination. They presuppose a pre- 
liminary sketch of English History, given in the years 
before 12. 

I. 12-13. General period, from the departure of the 
Romans from Britain to 1307. Special 
period, 11 54- 12 16. 
II. 13-14. General period, 1307- 1603. Special period, 
1558-1603. 

III. 14-15. General period, 1603-1715. Special period, 

1625- 1660. 

IV. 15-16. General period, 1715-1837. Special period, 

1 789- 1 837. French Revolution to Reform 
Bill. 
V. 16-17. 1837 — present day. Tariff Reform, Indian 
Mutiny, Economic History, Modern 
politics. 

In this scheme it is intended that the general period 
shall be done in outline only, and that the bulk of the 
work shall be given to the special period. The special 
period need not, however, be studied with a uniform 
degree of intensity. A few remarks upon each stage 
will make this clear. 

Year I. The special period is a short one ; but apart 
from it there are a number of topics that need attention 
in detail and a good deal of concrete illustration. 
Feudalism, the results of the Conquest, Domesday 
Book, the Church and the Crown, the crusades, social 
life, the coming of the friars, and the legislation of 
Edward I. are among these. The special period 
selected, containing as it does Henry II., Becket, 
Richard I., King John and Magna Charta, forms a 



ORGANISATION OF HISTORY TEACHING 163 

good centre from which, working backwards and for- 
wards, we can trace the origins and developments of 
these various topics. 

In Year II. the general period is long, and contains 
such important topics as the Hundred Years War, the 
Black Death and its economic results, the growth of 
Lollardy, and the Wars of the Roses. Here a topical 
treatment is necessary. A few episodes in the Hundred 
Years War must be treated in detail, the rest in the 
merest outline. Lollardy can be centred in Wyclif, 
whose personality will repay careful work. The Wars of 
the Roses need great skill in handling, they are of 
importance as indicating a phase through which England 
was destined to pass, but to only a few episodes can 
much attention be given. One battle, say Towton, can 
be treated at length as typical of the rest ; Warwick's 
position and in particular the influence acquired through 
the fortunate marriages of his house must be made clear ; 
stress must be laid on the social life of the times in 
connexion with the Paston Letters, and in the literature 
hour some of Shakespeare's historical plays may be read. 
Otherwise there is no time for more than a sketch of the 
sequence of events. It is desirable, however, to give 
as much time as possible to the Reformation under 
Henry VIII. 

Year III. Here the general period is short, and there 
will be ample time for a detailed treatment of the special 
period, 162 5- 1660, Charles I. and the Commonwealth, 
a period that is of the first importance. 

Year IV. Here in the general period, 171 5-1837, the 
Conquest of India, and the War of American Indepen- 
dence can be given only in outline, in order to leave time 
for a fuller treatment in the special period of the French 



164 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

Revolution and Napoleon in their relation to English 
politics. 

Year V. Here a somewhat different treatment might 
be adopted. The class might well be reading some 
book in connexion with recent political or with economic 
history, and some of the teaching might approximate to 
lecture form. 

In the scheme thus outlined it is supposed that the 
necessary European History is treated as occasion arises. 
No provision is made for Greek or Roman History, 
because to do so would either lengthen the cycle or 
make it necessary to compress the whole of English 
History into two or three years. If the cycle is lengthened 
in such a way as to allow two years for ancient history 
before modern history is begun, this gives a rotation for 
the history course of at least six years and makes it 
impossible for the pupil to go through his national 
history twice before the average leaving school age. It 
must also be remembered that under this arrangement 
the Roman history would be read by pupils of about 
11-12 years of age, and that it would thus be impossible 
to correlate it with the reading of Latin historical 
authors. 

A better arrangement would be to give an independent 
course of ancient history for, say, one period weekly. 

12-14. A two-years' course covering a history of Eastern 
civilisation and Greek History up to Alexander 
the Great. 

14-16. A two-years' course covering Roman History up 
to the break-up of the Roman Empire and 
including a brief account of the Middle Ages. 

Here from fourteen to sixteen at least the pupils 



ORGANISATION OF HISTORY TEACHING 165 

would be reading a Latin text, either Livy or Caesar's 
Gallic War, in connection with which much useful 
historical work might be done. 

It is difficult to see how the scheme outlined above 
could adequately be covered without four periods weekly, 
three for the modern and one for the ancient history, 
and on modern sides or in modern schools this is not 
too much to ask for such an important subject. It 
would, however, be possible to reduce the periods of 
modern history to two by reserving one for the outline 
of the general period, and using the other for the 
treatment of documents in connexion with the special 
period. This arrangement would necessitate only three 
periods in all. 

The next scheme suggested supposes that only two 
school periods weekly and one period of preparation can 
be found for history, and tries to make the best of an 
unfortunate situation. 
I. 12-13. Modern History — 1154-1216. Henry II., 
Richard I., John (one period and one 
preparation weekly). 
Ancient History — Eastern civilisations and 
Greek History down to Alexander the 
Great (one period weekly). 
II. 13-14. 1413-1485. Henry V. to Richard III. (one 
period and one preparation weekly). 
Roman History up to the break-up of the 
Roman Empire (one period weekly). 

III. 14-15. 1558-1603. Elizabeth (one period and one 

preparation weekly). 
Mediaeval European History and revision of 
English History (one period weekly). 

IV. 15-16. 1625-1660. Charles I. and the Common- 



166 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

wealth (two periods and one preparation 
weekly). 
V. 16-17. I 789-i837 < French Revolution to Reform 
Bill (two periods and one preparation 
weekly). 

In this scheme it is intended that in each year the 
bulk of the time shall be devoted to the short period 
indicated, and that a mere skeleton of the remainder of 
English History shall be given. In this way with only 
two periods a week some useful detailed work might be 
done, while in connexion with the mediaeval history of 
the third year many points in English History might be 
revised and amplified. The year devoted to events 
since 1837 which figured in the first scheme has dis- 
appeared, and for it must be substituted a few lectures 
given to the whole school ; or a small book on Nineteenth 
Century History might be set as a holiday task. 

It would be easy to multiply schemes of this kind, 
but little would be gained by doing so. They are 
intended only to make clear the exact nature of the 
problem, to bring into relief the necessity of, at all costs, 
reserving a small portion of the time for detailed work, 
on which exercises can be set, and to show that, if 
ancient history is included in the cycle and is not made 
to run parallel with it, the cycle becomes too long for 
practical purposes. In any case, the exact nature of the 
scheme adopted in a particular school must depend 
upon the organisation of the remainder of the 
curriculum. 

It must also be remembered that in English schools 
the problem is not so simple as it appears on paper, as 
fortunately it is not the custom to promote whole classes 



ORGANISATION OF HISTORY TEACHING 167 

yearly, but at certain stages at any rate to allow the 
cleverer boys to have terminal removes. As result a 
number of boys are promoted before they have com- 
pleted the syllabus assigned for the year. This difficulty 
can to some extent be got over by arranging that whole 
sections of a school shall do the same period in a given 
year. Stages I., II., and III., for instance, as set forth 
above, might all do the first period of history in the first 
year, the second in the second year, and the third in the 
third year. Dislocation would then occur only when 
boys were promoted during the year from one section of 
the school to another. With this organisation there is 
the further advantage that it is possible to arrange for 
general lectures on the period to be given to the whole 
school section at once. 

It is not likely that the experienced schoolmaster will 
fall into the error of believing that a full outline of 
history duly assimilated by the class will either give 
mental training or convey much meaning to them. 
With the historical expert the case is different. Each 
detail and each date awakens in him a number of 
associations and has in consequence a wealth of 
meaning, and it is difficult for him to realise that to the 
boys' minds it conveys very little. To the expert the 
carefully arranged, symmetrical, and uniformly developed 
scheme appeals as the organisation of a deep knowledge 
which he already possesses : for the boy the sequence of 
statements that can so easily be learned and reproduced 
in the examination room may be little more than the 
headings of chapters that he has not read. Unfortu- 
nately, it is the expert who in some cases controls the 
making of schemes in accordance with which schools 
have to work. 



CHAPTER VIII 

HISTORY AND THE EXAMINATION SYSTEM 

The process of examination is no new thing. There 
never has been an age when men of a certain type did 
not examine their own lives and conduct, bringing them 
to the touchstone of principles and of ideals ; there 
never was a time when men's characters and talents 
were not scrutinised and judged by that sternest of all 
examiners, social opinion ; in no country have rulers, 
teachers, writers, or pastry-cooks ever escaped criticism, 
and it is upon this criticism that their continued 
excellence has depended. We cannot, even if we will, 
avoid examination. It is an immutable law that shoddy 
work, low aims, and indifferent counsels sooner or later 
are discovered, are weighed in the balance and found 
wanting ; and society is the gainer thereby. But to 
what extent society is the gainer by the modern 
development of the examination principle is perhaps 
doubtful. In matters of conscience, although self- 
examination, if properly conducted, is always salutary, 
examination and inquisition by others is liable to 
produce duplicity and callousness instead of a sensitive 
candour. Let the argument be transferred from the 
domain of conduct to that of knowledge. The operations 
of learning and of teaching to which the crude methods 

1 68 



THE EXAMINATION SYSTEM 169 

of the external examiner are in this country applied so 
freely and so universally are just as delicate and as 
sensitive as the tenderest conscience, are quite as liable 
to have their growth checked and stunted, or to be 
developed in a direction which in the long run will be 
unprofitable. 

It is only of recent years that this system of testing 
the results of teaching by a series of examinations from 
the age of 13 upwards has grown to such huge 
dimensions, and has been so readily acquiesced in by the 
whole teaching community. Has this growth worked 
for good or for evil ? In the beginning the external 
examinations that now hold schools of a certain type in 
such a firm grip were probably an unmixed good. They 
compelled schools which taught only a little Latin, and 
taught that badly, to widen their curriculum and look to 
their efficiency. It is easy to criticise examination 
papers, especially those in English Literature and 
English History, but it must not be forgotten that 
these examinations have ensured that a boy of a certain 
age shall have read at least a play of Shakespeare and a 
novel by Scott, and shall not be wholly ignorant of the 
leading facts and dates of his national history. That 
they were needed at the time of their introduction is to 
a degree shown by their remarkable success. The 
British parent, profoundly sceptical as to the value of 
all intellectual instruction, and in particular as to the 
efficiency of the schoolmaster under whom he has placed 
his boys, looks on the external examination as a test of 
the competency not of the boy but of the school. There 
is a definiteness about marks and orders and class- 
lists that, as compared with the platitudes which he 
hears from platforms on school speech-days, appeals 



170 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

strongly to him as a business man, and consequently the 
demand for certificates and examination results has 
grown so great that only those schoolmasters who are 
very sure of their position can resist it. 

Further, it may be misleading to pass censure upon 
any examination paper or set of questions in the abstract. 
Much depends upon the school organisation that supplies 
the candidates who are to answer them, much upon 
the system of studies which leads up to the examination 
as a final test. If the teaching is really good and the 
pupils are not sent in prematurely, the . examination 
may be taken in their stride, and the quality of the 
teacher's work is not affected ; though in this case the 
need for the examination is not very evident. If, on 
the other hand, the organisation of a subject in the 
lower and middle forms of a school is poor, or if a 
series of examinations have to be passed for each of 
which the teacher may have to prepare his pupils in 
the subject-matter of a definite syllabus, and is given 
about a year to do it in, it is not difficult to see that 
the selection of the subject-matter is taken out of his 
hands, and that in many cases the method of imparting 
it is settled for him as well. He will have to administer 
his facts, and often, in addition, the inferences that his 
pupils should draw from them, as forcibly and as neatly 
as he can in order to cover the syllabus in the allotted 
time. In this case the quality of the teacher's work 
is affected, and in many cases adversely affected, as will 
be shown later. 

Naturally the apologist for examinations assumes 
that the organisation which supplies candidates to 
them is a good one, and that in consequence the 
teaching is not subordinated to the examination. Alas ! 



THE EXAMINATION SYSTEM 171 

experience shows that the subject frequently remains 
unorganised, and that the matter covered by the 
syllabus is gone through in the one year previous 
to the pupil's entry for the examination ; while as 
long as the daily papers publish lists of the successful 
candidates in the local examinations, and the public 
attach such importance to them, it shows an ignorance 
of human nature to hope that teachers, whose pro- 
fessional reputation depends almost solely on such 
results, will not conform rigidly to the methods by 
which they may be obtained. These methods are far 
from being despicable. They must be businesslike ; 
they demand skill on the part of the teacher and work 
on the part of the pupil, and they thus embody a 
standard of strenuousness and of accuracy which is 
not without value. With certain subjects, however, of 
which history is one, working for examination may 
necessitate the omission of the very elements that 
render them of value, and it is therefore most undesir- 
able that in the case of State-aided schools public 
money should be expended on such work. For this 
the reasons are as follows : — 

1. When the subject of examination is a process the 
examination may serve as an adequate test of good 
teaching. If a boy is asked to write a piece of Latin 
prose, the quality of his work is a fair test of his master's 
skill in teaching. The power of solving complex problems 
in algebra is a sure sign that the teaching has been on 
right lines. With history, however, as at present ex- 
amined, this is not the case. The questions set are chiefly 
a test of memory, and although a consideration of causal 
elements may be asked for, it is very difficult for the 
examiner to tell whether the inferences and causal con- 



172 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

nexions which are supplied by the boy in the examination 
room have actually been worked out by him, or, like the 
answers to questions of fact, are mere memory work. 

2. To draw and select concise answers of fact from 
a fuller body of knowledge properly suffused with 
atmosphere is an extremely difficult task. It is as a 
rule beyond the capacity of the average boy. A pupil 
who has been taught to reason out his own train of 
cause and effect, w#ho has assimilated a considerable 
background of information and with it a suitable atmo- 
sphere, and who therefore has been given an admirable 
basis for further historical study and an interest which 
may actually lead him to such study, may none the 
less make a poor show in the examination-room when 
pitted against one to whom the sequence of cause and 
effect has been neatly presented and who has been 
practised in writing answers of the kind required, but 
has not been introduced to any of the material that 
gives atmosphere or to the exercises that consume time. 
The younger the pupil the more likely it is that examina- 
tion conditions will hinder the observance of a due 
proportion between schematised fact and atmospheric 
background. 

3. The length of the periods demanded for some 
examinations in history and the uniform scale of pre- 
sentation that is presupposed makes it almost impossible 
for the teacher to work on the lines that demand the 
most thought from the pupil. 

A few examples of examination papers recently set 
will illustrate these points. 



THE EXAMINATION SYSTEM 173 



[Candidates are required to attempt at least ONE question in each 
section of the paper, and not more than SIX altogether. ,] 

A. 

1. Trace the history of the divorce of Catharine of Aragon 
and show how it affected the separation from Rome. 

2. Write short narratives of (a) Wyatt's Rebellion, (0) the 
loss of Calais. 

3. Give a rapid sketch of English literature under Elizabeth. 

B. 

4. Explain the royalist successes in the first two years of the 
Great Rebellion (1642, 1643). Why were they not maintained? 

5. What were the objects aimed at by the Navigation Acts ? 
What results were achieved ? 

6. Give some account of the doings of the English navy 
during the reign of William III. 

C. 

7. Sketch the relations between England and Spain during 
the eighteenth century. 

8. Give some account of the opposition to Sir Robert 
Walpole, and of the careers of the leaders of that opposition. 

9. Trace in outline the principal stages in the French 
Revolution from its outbreak in 1789 to the establishment of 
the French Empire in 1804. 

D. 

10. Write a brief description of the following battles, and 
show their importance : Vinegar Hill, Vittoria, Navarino, 
Isandhlwana. 

n. Outline, with brief comments, the repressive measures 
of 1 8 1 9 (the six Acts). 

12. How did (a) the coup d'etat of 1851, ib) the Crimean 
winter, affect the constitution of the British Ministry for the 
time being ? 

This paper is intended for candidates of from 16 
to 17 years of age, and covers the period 1485 to the 
death of Queen Victoria. The general criticism upon 
it must be that it tests the memory of the pupil more 



174 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

than any other mental process. As a natural result, 
since many of the important topics have been questioned 
on in previous examinations, the examiner has appar- 
ently been driven to avoid them. A teacher might 
have devoted much thought and labour to the more 
interesting topics in the reigns of Elizabeth and the 
Stuarts. His teaching would reap no reward in this 
paper. This avoidance of the questions set in previous 
papers must always be a feature of memory examina- 
tions ; but who ever heard of an examiner who refused 
to set a problem involving quadratic equations because 
a similar problem occurred in the last examination? 
School teaching must always lay stress on the obvious 
and important matters, and if the examiner has to 
avoid them, there is something wrong with the system. 
As a whole, the paper is likely to discourage all teaching 
that is not the most deliberate preparation for the 
examination -room. It is emphatically a text-book 
paper in which the expenditure of time on atmosphere 
or on exercises that require reasoning is not likely to 
increase the candidate's chances of success. Even 
taking the paper on its own level, it is far from reaching 
a high standard. As already noted, the most important 
periods are scarcely touched upon. The question on 
the " loss of Calais " is ambiguous. It may either ask 
for a narrative of the previous history of the English 
occupation leading up to the loss of Calais, or it may 
demand a detailed account of the taking of Calais. If 
the latter interpretation is correct, the question is a bad 
one. It is on a topic of which the details are relatively 
unimportant in comparison with a number of the topics 
which are passed over. It might, however, easily be 
rendered less vicious by asking, "Account for the loss 



THE EXAMINATION SYSTEM 175 

of Calais. To what extent may Queen Mary have 
over-estimated its importance to England ? " 

Question 3. Give a rapid sketch of English literature 
under Elizabeth. — This represents the worst type of 
question that can be set. It is a direct encouragement 
to teach lists of the names and characteristics of authors 
that the pupils have not read, and this is useless and 
senseless cram of the most unprofitable kind. It is a 
saddening reflection that many competent and earnest 
teachers have to spend their lives in preparing pupils 
to deal with papers of this kind, that a great university 
countenances such examining and derives a pecuniary 
profit from it, and that the money which ratepayers 
contribute towards secondary education with such 
reluctance may be devoted to work of which such papers 
determine the quality. It is examinations of this 
type which deter many able men from entering the 
teaching profession. 

B 

{Candidates may answer any six, but not more than six, 
of the following eighteen questions. They should take 
SPECIAL CARE that each a?iswer bears the sa?ne number as 
the question to which it is an answer, .] 

I. 1066 to 1509 A.D. 

1. Point out the difference between the conduct of William I. 
towards Lanfranc and the conduct of William II. towards 
Anselm. 

2. What do you know of Matilda, the daughter of Henry I., 
and of Eleanor, the wife of Edward I. ? 

3. What were the grievances which caused the Barons' War 
in the reign of Henry III. ? 

4. When, and why, was the battle of Bannockburn fought ? 
What were its results ? 

5. Mention the actions from which the Good Parliament 
and the Merciless Parliament took their names. 



176 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

6. Give an account of either the career of Margaret of 
Anjou, or the rebellion of Lambert Simnel. 

II. 1509 to 1688 A.D. 

7. Describe the events which brought about the rise and 
the fall of Thomas Cromwell. 

8. What was Elizabeth's object in her ecclesiastical policy ? 
How did she deal with Roman Catholics and Puritans ? 

9. What gave rise to the Gunpowder Plot ? How was it 
discovered, and what became of the conspirators ? 

10. Write an account of the invasion of the Scotch which 
ended in the battle of Worcester. What were the consequences 
of its failure ? 

11. Give the provisions of the Test Act. When, and why, 
was it passed ? 

12. State what you know of either the Habeas Corpus Act, 
or the trial of the Seven Bishops. 

III. 1688 to 1832 A.D. 

13. Give the dates and the chief provisions of any two of 
the following : — the Treaty of Ryswick, the Grand Alliance, 
the Septennial Act, Walpole's Excise Scheme. 

14. Describe briefly the rebellion of 1745. 

15. State with regard to each of the following battles the 
date, the combatants, and the results : — Bunker's Hill, Camper- 
down, Minden, Plassey, Quiberon Bay. 

16. Who was John Wilkes ? With what agitations and 
reforms was he connected ? 

17. Why did England and France go to war in 1793 ? 

18. Describe either the Waterloo campaign or the work of 
Canning in the management of foreign affairs. 

This paper represents an ingenious attempt to permit 
candidates to offer either the whole of English History 
or a shorter period. On this it may be, remarked that 
if a candidate offers the period 1066- 1832, eighteen 
questions does not give a sufficient choice ; while if 
he selects any one of the periods into which the whole 
stretch of history is divided, he is offered no choice 
at all. 



THE EXAMINATION SYSTEM 177 

Like the first example given, the paper appeals to the 

memory of the pupil and to little more. Questions upon 

the conduct of William II. towards Anselm, upon the 

candidate's knowledge of Matilda or of Eleanor, or of the 

events which brought about the rise and fall of Thomas 

Cromwell, can be committed to memory from the 

manuals arranged for this purpose. For purposes of 

illustration, it may be well to consider two condensed 

biographies taken from such a manual, an excellent one 

of its kind. 

Anselm [103 3-1 109] 

Anselm was an Italian, being born at Aosta (1033), but he 
entered a monastery first in Burgundy, and after a short stay 
there went to the famous Norman abbey of Bee, whose prior at 
this time was the celebrated Lanfranc. When Lanfranc left Bee, 
he was succeeded as prior by Anselm ; but he still saw something 
of his old superior, for the abbey's business often took him to 
England. 

When Lanfranc died (1089) the See of Canterbury remained 
vacant for some years, in order that the King (William II.) might 
enjoy its revenues. But an opportune illness in 1092 led the 
King to offer Anselm the vacant see, and Anselm, despite his 
protests, was forced to accept it. As soon as the King recovered 
from his illness, he hastened to quarrel with his new archbishop, 
whose present to him on taking over the see he considered 
intolerably small. When Anselm declared his intention of pro- 
ceeding to Rome to receive the archbishop's pall at the hands of 
Pope Urban, the King replied by refusing to acknowledge Urban 
as Pope at all ; and when, after the Council of Rockingham, the 
King recanted, and sent for the pall to bestow it upon Anselm, 
the latter refused to receive it at a layman's hands. However, a 
compromise was arrived at, and Anselm settled down to the work 
of his see. But when a quarrel about Anselm's feudal position 
broke out later, Anselm left England for Rome (1097). He 
stayed on the Continent till the accession of Henry I. made it 
possible for him to return to England. But in 1103 he went 
upon his travels again rather than yield in the matter of investitures. 
Briefly stated, Henry demanded homage and the right to invest 
Anselm with the symbols of his office ; Anselm, following in this 

12 



178 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

the opinion of the Continental Church, thought this an insufferable 
indignity to the Church. However, two years later, king and 
archbishop arrived at a compromise which was afterwards followed 
throughout Europe ; this was that ecclesiastics were to do homage 
for the temporal possessions of their office to the temporal power, 
but were to receive the spiritual symbols of their offices at the 
hands of an ecclesiastic representing the Church. 

Anselm was then a scholar, an organiser, an administrator, and 
a statesman ; a man of singularly pure aims, he was ready to 
abide by what he thought a good principle, and in the age in 
which he lived a victory over the power of kings might well seem 
a victory for good over force and tyranny. 

Thomas Cromwell |y. 1540] 

After a varied and adventuresome life in Italy, Venice, and the 
low countries as soldier, clerk, and lawyer, Cromwell in 1524 
entered the service of Cardinal Wolsey. His loyal defence of his 
disgraced master attracted the King's notice, and after Wolsey's 
fall he passed into Henry's service. It was he who first sug- 
gested to Henry that he should take the divorce question and the 
government of the English Church into his own hands ; as a 
reward he was made a member of the Council and soon became 
Chancellor. When Henry had acted on his advice by declaring 
himself Supreme Head of the Church, Cromwell became his 
Vicar- General, or representative in Church affairs. In that 
capacity he ordered a visitation of the monasteries and secured 
the suppression of most of them. He was actuated chiefly by two 
motives ; he wished to make the King absolute, and to use the 
power thus gained to promote the work of the Reformation. But 
he was working too zealously, and his vigorous measures brought 
about a reaction. Rebellions broke out, and the King himself 
grew alarmed, and consequently passed the Six Articles into law. 
Cromwell, however, pursued his policy by trying to bring about 
an alliance between Henry and the Protestant princes on the 
Continent ; to secure this he persuaded the King to marry Anne 
of Cleves, niece of the Elector of Saxony, the leader of the 
German Protestants. But not only was the marriage itself a 
dismal failure, but nothing came of the political situation of which 
it was a part. Cromwell was arrested shortly afterwards (1540) 
on a charge of high treason, was attainted, and condemned and 
executed without being allowed to say a word in defence. His 
fall was a triumph for the supporters of the old religion, and was 



THE EXAMINATION SYSTEM 179 

not unpleasing to the mass of the people, who groaned under his 
severe taxation and had little sympathy with his reforming zeal. 

Summarising biographies of this kind have their value 
if the historical matter with which they deal has been 
taught in a proper and leisurely manner, but they are 
thoroughly vicious if success in examination depends 
upon learning them prematurely. When only fifteen 
minutes is allowed for each question, it is improbable that 
the average boy of 14-15 will do himself justice, unless 
undue attention is given to the mastering of such 
summaries. 

To return to our paper. In setting examination papers 
it is axiomatic that, if alternatives are offered, they should 
be of equal difficulty and importance. Question 6 is an 
offender in this respect. The candidate is asked to 
describe the career of Margaret of Anjou or the rebellion 
of Lambert Simnel. The career of Margaret covers the 
Wars of the Roses, and to describe it a good knowledge 
of the detail in this period is necessary. Even then it 
would be a difficult thing to give an adequate description 
of it in fifteen minutes. In comparison with this the 
detail of Lambert Simnel's Rebellion is simple and of 
little importance. A similar lack of equivalence is to be 
found in Question 18, when the candidate is asked 
to describe either the Waterloo campaign or Canning's 
foreign policy. In general this paper is disappointing, 
since it offers little encouragement to the teacher to teach 
slowly and make his pupils think. 



i8o TEACHING OF HISTORY 



[Candidates are expected to answer Six, and not more than SIX, 
questions. More marks can be obtained on either Question 
i or Question 2 than on any of the others. ] 

1 . Write short notes on the following : — the battle of Otterburn, 
the rebellion of Jack Cade, the rebellion of Perkin Warbeck, the 
Field of Cloth of Gold, the Spanish attempt on Ireland. 

2. Give some account of the character and career of any two 
of the following : — King Henry V., Warwick the Kingmaker, 
Cardinal Wolsey, Northumberland the Protector. 

3. Trace briefly the success of the House of York through the 
Wars of the Roses. 

4. Give some account of the various claims of Henry VII. 
to the throne. 

5. Explain clearly the nature of the religious changes made 
under Henry VIII., with special reference to — the Act for the 
Submission of the Clergy, the Statute of Six Articles, the 
executions of More and Fisher. 

6. Give a short account of the following : — the First and 
Second Prayer Books of King Edward VI., the Reconciliation to 
Rome under Mary, the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity of 
Queen Elizabeth. 

7. On what occasions, and with what results, did Elizabeth 
engage in warfare with (a) Scotland, (b) France ? 

8. What maritime discoveries were made by English 
navigators in the Tudor reigns ? 

9. Trace the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. 

10. Compare the successes of the Danes in England before 
Alfred's accession with those under Canute. 

1 1 . What effect on domestic history had the French wars of 
the reign of Edward III. ? 

12. Give an account of the foreign policy of William III. 
How far was it in accordance with the true interests of England ? 

1 3. Trace the growth of the English power in India down to 
the overthrow of the Marathas. 

14. What were the Corn Laws? Describe shortly the circum- 
stances which led to their repeal. 

This paper, intended for pupils of 14-15, provides a 
special period, 1 399-1603, and also some questions on 



THE EXAMINATION SYSTEM 181 

English History in general. It is on the whole better 
than either of the two preceding papers, in that it deals 
with essentials ; and taken at their level the questions 
are good, with the exception of 9, Trace the conversion 
of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, which for boys of 
this age is unsuitable. As a guide to the teacher, 
however, the paper is bad. It tests the memory and 
nothing else. As has already been pointed out, when 
reasons and inferences are given in a candidate's answers 
it is not easy to ascertain whether he has been induced to 
make them for himself or has simply been given them ; 
but in this paper no reasons are asked for at all, the 
questions are questions of pure fact, and as only 
fifteen minutes are available for answering each question, 
it is not likely that anything beyond the bare facts will 
be given. Some questions (No. 2, for example) 
can be answered directly from the summary -books. 
Apart from this, the special period is far too long to allow 
of detailed work or of much thought on the part of the 
boy during the school year. 

It is of little use to criticise defects without at the 
same time trying to point out a remedy. These papers 
have all been censured on the ground that they cater 
solely for the memory ; but it is not here suggested that 
the memory should not be tested. A portion of every 
history paper for boys should consist of questions which 
are mere fact, date, genealogy, and sequence questions. 
This portion should be compulsory, and a moderate 
number of marks should be assigned to it ; but the bulk 
of the marks should be given, and the position of the 
candidates decided, by questions of a different kind, 
intended to test reasoning power and ingenuity, and to 
ensure, so far as examination can ensure this, that the 



1 82 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

pupils shall have been taught in a certain way. Taking 
as the special period 1399- 1603 (since, although it 
covers far too much ground, that is the one selected by 
the paper which has just been considered), and assuming 
that candidates have three hours instead of one and a 
half in which to answer it, we may attempt to draw up 
a paper that to some extent will satisfy the conditions 
that have been laid down. 

[Candidates are to attempt all the questions in Part I, and 
are to answer four questions, but not more, from Part II] 

I. 

1. Write short notes on the following : Sir John Oldcastle, 
John Duke of Bedford, Perkin Warbeck, Cardinal Wolsey, 
Cardinal Pole, Lord Burleigh, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. 

2. Give a short account of three of the following : Henry 
V.'s Campaigns in France; The Earl of Warwick's relations 
with Margaret of Anjou ; Henry VII.'s difficulties on coming 
to the throne ; The Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII. ; 
The Catholic Plots against Elizabeth; Drake's Voyage of 
Circumnavigation. 

3. What events do you associate with the following places : 
Harfleur, Patay, Wakefield, Tewkesbury, Pavia, Cambrai, 
Carberry Hill, Plymouth ? 

II. 

4. Asked about the teaching which the voice gave her 
respecting the salvation of her soul, she said that it taught her 
to govern herself well, to go often to church, and that it said 
she must go to France. And she added that the questioner 
would not this time learn from her in what guise the voice had 
appeared to her. She furthermore confessed that the voice 
told her twice or thrice a week that she must leave home and 
go to France, and that her father knew nothing of her departure. 
She also said that the voice told her to go to France, and that 
she could no longer remain where she was, and that the voice 
told her that she should raise the siege of Orleans. 

To what does this refer, and in what year were these 



THE EXAMINATION SYSTEM 183 

answers given ? What do they tell you about the 
character of the speaker? Comment on the words 
in italics. 

5. Letter from Edmund Clere to John Paston. 
Blessed be God, the King is well amended, and hath been 

since Christmas Day, and on St. John's Day commanded his 
almoner to ride to Canterbury with his offering and commanded 
the secretary to offer at St. Edward's. 

And on the Monday afternoon (29th December) the Queen 
came to him and brought my Lord Prince with her. And 
then he asked what the Prince's name was, and the Queen 
told him, Edward ; and then he held up his hands and 
thanked God therof. And he said he never knew till that 
time, nor wist not where he had been whiles he hathe been 
sick till now. And he saith he is in charity with all the 
world, and so he would his lords were. 

Date this letter and state to what event it refers. Explain 
any allusions that seem to you to need explanation. 
What is the value to the historian of letters of this 
kind? 

6. At daybreak on the Monday following there were no 
chaplains present to perform divine service for King Richard, 
nor any breakfast prepared to revive his flagging spirits. 
Moreover, in the morning he declared that during the night 
he had seen dreadful visions, and had imagined himself 
surrounded by a multitude of demons. His face consequently, 
always haggard, seemed more livid and ghastly than usual, 
and he asserted that, to whichever side victory might be given, 
the issue of this day's battle would prove the utter destruction 
of the kingdom of England. 

Comment on this extract from the Croyland Chronicle. 

Why may Richard III. have been particularly liable 

to unpleasant dreams? 
^ 1487. Lord Bacon, History of King Henry VII., 

*' ed. Lumby, p. 15. (1621.) 

According to the lord chancellor's admonition, there were 
that parliament divers excellent laws ordained, concerning the 
points which the king recommended. 



1 84 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

First, the authority of the star-chamber, which before sub- 
sisted by the ancient common laws of the realm, was confirmed 
in certain cases by act of parliament. This court is one of the 
sagest and noblest institutions of this kingdom* For in the 
distribution of courts of ordinary justice, there was nevertheless 
always reserved a high and pre-eminent power to the king's 
council, in causes that might in example or consequence con- 
cern the state of the commonwealth ; and if they were criminal, 
the council used to sit in the chamber called the star-chamber ; 
if civil, in the white chamber or white-hall. 

How far would Bacon's high opinion of the Star Chamber 
have been shared in the reign of Henry VII. by : 
(i) a turbulent noble; (2) a judge on circuit; 
(3) a well-fed, liveried retainer ; (4) a parish priest ; 
(5) a prosperous farmer ; (6) a country armourer ? 

8. It may also please your most royal majesty to know how 
that yesterday there passed your Commons a bill that no 
person within this your realm shall hereafter keep and nourish 
above the number of 2000 sheep, and also that the eighth 
part of every man's land, being a farmer, shall forever hereafter 
be put in tillage yearly ; which bill, if by the great wisdom, 
virtue, goodness, and zeal that your highness beareth towards 
this your realm, might have good success and take good effect 
among your lords above, I do conjecture and suppose in my 
poor, simple, and unworthy judgment that your highness shall 
do the most noble, profitable, and most beneficial thing that 
ever was done to the commonwealth of this your realm. 

Comment on this letter written by Thomas Cromwell to 
Henry VIII. in 1534, making clear in your remarks: 

(1) Whether it was likely that there would be any disagree- 
ment between the Commons and the Lords on the 
subject of this bill. 

(2) What effect the bill would have (a) on trade in wool, 
(b) on the trade in cloth, (c) on the king's revenues, 
(a) on recruiting. 

(3) Whether suppression of the greater monasteries a few 
years later would make the bill more necessary or less 
necessary. 



THE EXAMINATION SYSTEM 185 

9. The next morning the Frenchmen entered and possessed 
the town. Thus have ye heard the discourse of the overthrow 
and loss of the town of Calais, an enterprise which was begun 
and ended in less than eight days, to the great marvel of the 
world, that a town of such strength, and so well furnished with 
all things as that was, should so suddenly be taken and 
conquered, — but most especially in the winter season, when 
all the country about, being marsh ground, is commonly over- 
flown with water. 

Comment on this and give the date of the event. Under 
what conditions was Calais most liable to be 
successfully attacked ? How far was the loss of the 
town an advantage to England ? 

10. A. 1534. 

Albeit the king's majesty justly and rightfully is and 
ought to be the supreme head of the Church of England, 
and so is recognised by the clergy of this realm in their 
convocations, yet nevertheless, for corroboration and confirma- 
tion thereof, and for increase of virtue in Christ's religion 
within this realm of England, and to repress and extirpate all 
errors, heresies, and other enormities and abuses heretofore 
used in the same, be it enacted, by authority of this present 
parliament, that the king, our sovereign lord, his heirs and 
successors, kings of this realm, shall be taken, accepted, and 
reputed the only supreme head in earth of the Church of 
England, called Anglicana Ecclesia ; and shall have and enjoy 
annexed and united to the imperial crown of this realm, as 
well as the title thereof, as all honours, dignities, pre-eminences, 
jurisdictions, privileges, authorities, immunities, profits, and 
commodities to the said dignity of the supreme head of 
the same church belonging and appertaining. 

B. 1559- 
And that also it may likewise please your highness that 
it may be established and enacted by the authority afore- 
said, That such jurisdictions, privileges, superiorities, and pre- 
eminences, spiritual and ecclesiastical, as by any spiritual or 
ecclesiastical power or authority hath heretofore been or may 



i86 



TEACHING OF HISTORY 



lawfully be exercised or used for the visitation of the ecclesi- 
astical state and persons, and for reformation, order, and 
correction of' the same and of all manner of errors, heresies, 
schisms, abuses, offences, contempts, and enormities, shall for 
ever, by authority of this present Parliament, be united and 
annexed to the imperial crown of this realm. . . . 

Compare these extracts from the Acts of Supremacy of 
1534 and 1559, and point out any important 
difference that you notice, as well as the reason for 
this difference. 

II. 



To be considered in the Marriage. 


Convenient Person. 


Charles. 


Earl of Leicester. 


In birth 


Nephew and brother of 


Born son of a Knight, 




an emperor. 


his grandfather but a 
Squire. 


In beauty and con- 


To be judged of. 


Meet (suitable). 


stitution 






In wealth . 


By report 3000 ducats 


All of the Queen, and 




by the year. 


in debt. 


In friendship 


The Emperor, the King 


None but such as shall 




of Spain, the Dukes 


have of the Queen. 




of Saxony, Bavaria, 






Cleves, Florence, and 






Mantua. 




In reputation 


Honoured of all men. 


Hated of many. His 
wife's death. 



Explain this memorandum by Sir William Cecil. What 
light does it throw upon his character, and how 
might his personal welfare have been affected by 
Elizabeth's choice ? 

12. A. 

Sire — . . . If it be really decided to go to England 
itself I would only observe that this Armada, even when united 
with the troops of the Duke of Parma, which would at this 
season be embarked and carried over the straits with no small 



THE EXAMINATION SYSTEM 187 

difficulty, does not seem to me sufficient to attempt this 
enterprise in the very heart of the winter. We have no 
harbours at hand in case of need, and the tide is extremely 
strong, the sea all open to the south winds. Nor, in my 
opinion, would it be such an easy matter to take the Isle of 
Wight, or any other harbour, for the shelter of our fleet, as is 
represented to your majesty by those who stake nothing on 
the risk, and have not been taught the difference between 
victory and defeat. . . . 

B. 

Most Reverend — The uncertainties of naval enterprise 
are well known, and the fate which has befallen the Armada 
is an instance in point. You will have already heard that the 
Duke of Medina Sidonia has returned to Santander, bringing 
back with him part of the fleet. Others of the ships have 
reached various ports, some of them having suffered severely 
from their long and arduous voyage. We are bound to give 
praise to God for all things which He is pleased to do. I on 
the present occasion have given thanks to Him for the mercy 
which He has shown. In the foul weather and violent storms 
to which the Armada has been exposed, it might have 
experienced a worse fate ; and that the misfortune has not 
been heavier is no doubt due to the prayers which have been 
offered in its behalf so devoutly and continuously. 

Compare letter A. from the Marquis of Santa Cruz to 
Philip II. of Spain in 1587 with letter B. from 
Philip II. to the Bishops of his dominions in 1588, 
and discuss their bearing on the fate of the Armada. 

It would be impossible for any boy to make much of 
Part II. in the examination paper sketched above unless 
he had been taught to use his wits upon the data from 
which history is written, and if examinations in history 
are necessary, the method here indicated would make 
them a test of ingenuity as well as of memory. 

Doubtless such questions could not adequately be 



188 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

answered except by pupils whose training had been of 
a certain kind, and it must be confessed that, for the 
sake of illustration, the proportion of space allotted to 
them has been exaggerated ; but a beginning might be 
made and the teaching of history might be influenced 
by the introduction into history papers of a few such 
questions with high marks assigned to them. 



CHAPTER IX 

HISTORY AND POETRY 

No one is likely to dissent from the general proposition 
that, where possible, full use should be made of those 
portions of English poetry which treat of historical 
events. If stirring episodes can be linked in the boy's 
mind with stirring verse, if the lilt and rhythm of 
majestic lines can be made the vehicle for a sequence 
of great events, if the struggles of nations or of classes 
can be presented in the words of the poets who lived 
through them, and whose songs echo the feelings of the 
time, there is here to our hand a combination of elements 
which it would be sheer folly to neglect. In this way 
better than in any other will events and phases of history 
be impressed upon the minds of middle-school boys, 
and receive a degree of illumination greater than could 
otherwise be given to them except by teachers of 
unusual gifts ; they will linger in the memory long 
after the logical exposition of the class-room has faded 
from it, and will form rallying -points for a life -long 
interest in the national history. 

All this is easy to write, and does not lack truth. It 
is the fatality of general statements that they are so 
often true with that kind of truth which seems to vanish 
and be dissipated as soon as we try to apply it in detail. 

189 



i 9 o TEACHING OF HISTORY 

As it is no business of this book to shirk detail, we 
must consider what are the difficulties for the craftsman 
at work in his class-room, and may treat them in con- 
nection with the questions : (i) What materials for such 
work exist? (2) Are we to use only verse that is 
contemporary with the events to which it alludes, or to 
utilise any good poetry that can be found ? (3) What 
are to be our other principles of selection ? (4) How 
are we to treat the poems when selected ? 

If we adopt anything approaching to an adequate 
standard of selection, it must be confessed that the 
material which we can find to work with is scanty. A 
comparatively small number of our best writers have 
treated in their best manner of historical events either 
of their own times or of former days. Some of the 
poems that might be suggested are mere doggerel, quite 
unworthy to place before boys ; others from their form 
or from their spirit are not fitted for the age of pupil to 
which a poetic treatment of history is most suitable. 
Indeed this difficulty is more serious in England than 
in some other countries, since in the English language 
the gulf that separates true poetry from doggerel is 
considerable. In German the transition is more gradual 
and the German schoolmaster has a large storehouse of 
historical verse to choose from, all of it readable, allusive, 
and possessed of a rhythm which is inspiriting, and 
most of it at any rate passable, if it does not always 
rise to the level of fine poetry. Consider, for instance, 
the following stanzas by Gerok : — 

Als Kaiser Karl sein Heldenschwert, die Leuchte der Germanen, 
Zur Ruh' gehangt im Siegessaal samt seiner Feinde Fahnen, 
Da sass der alte Held im Stuhl und horte gern mit an, 
Dieweil sein Tagewerk vollbracht, war andere gethan. 



HISTORY AND POETRY 191 

Und Eginhard und Alcuin, die mussten oft ihm lesen 

Von Helden, die zuvor gelebt, von Zeiten, die gewesen. 

Und sammeln ein und schreiben auf, aus deutschen Volkes 

Mund, 
Was von der Ahnen Thaten noch die Sage machte kund. 

Am Mittagstisch bei Wild und Fisch, die Tafel ihm zu wiirzen, 
Um Mitternacht, wenn er erwacht, die Stunden ihm zu kiirzen, 
Lag ihm zur Hand manch alter Band, manch kostlich Perga- 

ment, 
Weil jugendlich der greise Held von Wissbegierde brennt. 

Denn in des Volkes Kindermund, in Lied und Spruch der Alten, 
Da rauscht manch frischer Weisheitsquell wie aus Granites 

Spalten. 
Tief wurzelt unter Stein und Moos der Eiche macht'ger Schaft ; 
So griinden in der Vorzeit Schoss die Wurzeln unsrer Kraft. 

Die Lehrerin der Konige, das ist die Weltgeschichte, 

Sie lehrt, wie ein gerechter Gott die Gross' und Kleinen richte, 

Sie lehrt, wie in der Jahre Lauf das Nichtige vergeht, 

Sie lehrt, wie in der Zeiten Sturm das Tiichtige besteht. 

Und hort er so der Ahnen Lob, da ahnt's dem alten Helden, 
Dass einst auch seines Namens Ruhm die Sagenbiicher melden 
Und Alcuin und Eginhard sie schreiben heimlich auf 
Des Kaisers schlichte Lebensart und grossen Heldenlauf. 

Verwittert ist sein Heldenleib im Kaiserdom zu Aachen, 
Doch lebt sein grosser Name noch in aller Volker Sprachen, 
Doch lebt der alte Kaiser Karl in deutschen Lied und Wort, 
So lang' die deutsche Zunge klingt, bei seinen Deutschen fort. 

Or these spirited lines by Kopisch on Blucher : — 

Die Heere blieben am Rheine stehn : 

Soil man hinein nach Frankreich gehn ? 

Man dachte hin und wieder nach, 

Allein der alte Blucher sprach : 

" Generalkarte her ! 

Nach Frankreich gehn ist nicht so schwer. 

Wo steht der Feind ? " — Der Feind ? dahier. 



i 9 2 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

" Den Finger drauf, den sclagen wir ! 
Wo liegt Paris ? " — Paris dahier ! 
" Den Finger drauf ! das nehmen wir ! 
Nun schlagt die Bracken iibern Rhein ! 
Ich denke, der Champagner-Wein 
Wird, wo er wachst, am besten sein ! 
Vorwarts ! " 1 

For the German teacher there is no lack of similar 
material. It is possible to present the whole pageant 
of German and ' Prussian history to the small boy 
through the medium of verse, and for the secondary 
stage there is seldom any difficulty in finding suitable 
lyrics to illustrate any episode. Much of it, it is true, 
does not rise above a certain level, but it is all of 
respectable merit, and makes the right appeal to boyish 
feelings. 

The facilities of the teacher in England are not so 
great. If we place on one side historical plays and 
longer poetical works, the supply of lyrics and of short 
poems which form suitable units for a lesson or for 
committing to memory is limited. For some periods 
scarcely any illustrative verse of this kind is to be found, 
for others the stock is meagre or not suited to small 
boys. 2 

From the Roman occupation up to the Norman 

1 A good compilation of German historical verse is Ausgewdhlte 
Gedichte fur deft Geschichts-Unterricht (Dresden 1886). 

2 Good compilations for reference are Poems of English 
History, by J. A. Nicklin ; Carmina Britanniae, by Miss C. L. 
Thomson ; and English History in Verse, by E. Pertwee. The 
first is exclusive, and aims at giving nothing that is not of some 
value for its literary form ; the second is fuller, and for the 
earlier years contains some excellent translations from the French ; 
the third contains selections from almost everything in rhyme 
that alludes to any historical topic. 



HISTORY AND POETRY 193 

Conquest the only really suitable English poems by 
standard writers are Cowper's Boadicea, Longfellow's 
Othere's Voyage, and possibly Wordsworth's lines on 
Canute. From the Conquest up to 1399 the only 
poems by writers who are not at present living are 
Longfellow's Norman Baron, Gray's Bard, the Bannock- 
burns of Scott and of Burns, and Sir F. T. Palgrave's Crecy. 
For the period 1 399-1 588, Drayton's Agincourt, Scott's 
Flodden Field, Jane Elliott's Flowers of the Forest, 
Warner's Execution of Lady Jane, Grey, and Wordsworth 
on Latimer and Ridley, nearly exhaust the list of 
standard poems. For the period 15 58-1714 the supply 
is larger. Among other poems, Constable on the Death 
of Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser on Eliza, Queen 
of the Shepherds, Macaulay's Armada and Battle of 
Naseby, Milton on Fairfax, MarvelPs Ode to the Lord 
Protector on his Return from Ireland, Milton on Crom- 
well, and Hawker's Song of the Western Men supply 
capital material, and there are also some good ballads, 
such as The Honour of Bristol. It is, however, plain 
that the list of first-rate poems is meagre, and that some 
of them, such as Gray's Bard and Milton's Sonnets, are 
not wholly suitable for the purpose with younger boys. 
They might profitably be taken in the literature lesson, 
but they are difficult if considered as " atmosphere " for 
a history lesson. 

In this dearth it is evident that we cannot confine 
ourselves to lyrical poetry, but must press into our 
service suitable extracts from longer poems and from 
historical plays. It is equally evident that we must not 
be restricted to the use of poetry that is contemporary 
with the events. Ballads are to be found in fair number, 
but they are frequently of great length relatively to the 

13 



i 94 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

amount of historical fact that they illustrate, and there- 
fore must be used with moderation. Occasionally the 
political poems can be drawn upon, but even when 
modernised or translated they are suitable only for the 
higher of the stages that we are considering, and boys 
could not be asked to commit them to memory. 1 We 
must therefore be prepared to press into our service any- 
thing that seems suitable, no matter how recently it 
may have been written. One of the best imitations of 
an old ballad that has recently appeared deals with 
Perkin Warbeck, 2 and is of value when dealing with a 
period for which interesting illustration is difficult to 
find. It has not yet found its way into the anthologies 
of historical verse, and a few stanzas will show its quality. 

At Turney in Flanders was I born, 

Fore-doomed to splendour and sorrow ; 

For I was a king when they cut the corn, 
And they strangle me to-morrow. 

Oh ! why was I made so red and white, 

So fair and straight and tall ? 
And why were my eyes so blue and bright, 

And my hands so white and small ? 

I was nothing but a weaver's son, 

I was born in a weaver's bed ; 
My brothers toiled and my sisters spun, 

And my mother wove for our bread. 

And all the path for " the Rose " to walk 
Was strewn with flowers and posies. 

1 See The Political Songs of England, from the reign of John 
to that of Edward II, ed. and tr. by T. Wright, 1839 ; and 
Political Poems and Songs, from the Accession of Edward III. to 
that of Richard II., ed. by T. Wright, 1859. 

2 In The City of the Soul, Anon. 1899. 



HISTORY AND POETRY 195 

I was the milk-white rose of York, 
The rose of all the roses. 

And the Lady Margaret taught me well, 

Till I spake without lisping 
Of Warwick and Clarence and Isabel, 

And " my father " Edward the King. 

And I sailed to Ireland and to France, 

And I sailed to fair Scotland, 
And had much honour and pleasaunce, 

And Katherine Gordon's hand. 

I was not made for wars and strife 

And blood and slaughtering ; 
I was but a boy that loved his life, 

And I had not the heart of a king. 

Oh ! why hath God dealt so hardly with me, 

That such a thing should be done, 
That a boy should be born with a king's body 

And the heart of a weaver's son ? 



They promised me a kingly part 

And a crown my head to deck, 
And I have gotten the hangman's cart 

And a hempen cord for my neck. 

Oh ! I would that I had never been born 
To splendour and shame and sorrow, 

For it's ill riding to grim Tiborne, 
Where I must ride to-morrow. 

I shall dress me all in silk and scarlet, 
And the hangman shall have my ring ; 

For though I be hanged like a low-born varlet, 
They shall know I was once a king. 

And may I not fall faint or sick 

Till I reach at length the goal ; 
And I pray that the rope may choke me quick, 

And Christ receive my soul. 



196 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

The vigour of this ballad is sufficient to rectify the 
aridity of the family tree of York and Lancaster, and 
to render less obnoxious a complete list of all the 
conceivable quarters from which competitors with 
Henry VII. might have arisen. Surely it would be a 
sorry pedantry that refused to employ it because it was 
not contemporary, and this criterion may therefore be 
placed on one side. 

Our task is harder when we attempt to establish a 
standard of selection. For the lesson in English Litera- 
ture it is comparatively simple to find one. No literature 
that is not of acknowledged excellence should be ad- 
mitted, and although tastes differ, there is a considerable 
consensus of opinion as to the merits of standard verse. 
For the purpose of illustrating history we cannot aim so 
high without unduly restricting our field. Longfellow's 
Othere and Norman Baron are not fine poetry, but they 
serve a useful purpose with lower forms. The soliloquy 
placed by Mr. Alfred Austin in the mouth of King 
Alfred when, in retreat at Athelney, he muses over the 
map of England, does not, perhaps, present that writer 
at his best : — 

Yes, thus I trace it, ocean-fashioned land 

And wrinkled by the waves, that rolling round 

Its rough irregular shore, run out and in, 

Following it always as though loth to leave, 

Nay, eager, were they let, to find a way 

To its very heart ! England ! once Egbert's England, 

And his to be again, if Heaven but deign 

Use my poor brain and blade to wrench it back 

For Christ and Cerdic's race ! Northumbria, 

Cradle and cloister of the learned Bede, 

My ne'er seen master ! Rude East Anglia, 

Shouldering the ocean, as to push them off 

Who dare to come too close : twice sacred Kent, 



HISTORY AND POETRY 197 

Whither came Caesar first, Augustine next, 

To win the isle to government and God ! 

Then my own Wessex woods and fastnesses, 

Creeks, bays, bluffs, combes, and shoreward setting streams, 

Crowned at their source with burgh and sanctuary, 

Now menaced by the Dane, and fenced in north 

By Burhed's Mercia, Burhed overcome, 

And feebly flying where he should have stood, 

And won, or died. For all of these were Egbert's. 

Aye, and the western shore's once glorious lord, 

Aldhelm's Geraint, owned Egbert overlord, 

Even to the uttermost point of land where sounds 

Nought save the billows shocking herbless crags, 

Or sea-gulls wheeling over wind-lashed waves. 

yet there are few teachers who might not make use 
of its allusive nature to revise and expand previous 
knowledge. Assuredly we must not be too critical when 
we are on the search for instruments of this kind : even 
such a jingle as The Vicar of Bray is of value to bring 
home the changes in Church sentiment during several 
successive reigns, and may be tolerated just because it 
makes no claim to literary merit. The dividing line is, 
however, soon reached. On which side of it stands the 
following extract from Mary Tudor, by Sir Aubrey de 
Vere, describing the death-bed of Edward VI. ? 

Jane. O peace, good father, peace, the king sinks fast. 

Mary. Perils beset me — scorning all I come : 
Shall I abide with thee ? 

Edw. This gentle Jane 

Hath been a sister in my sister's absence. 

Mary. Why was I bade to go ? He bade me fly, — 
Ah, traitor ! (j>ointi?ig to Northimberland). 

Edw. It is now too late — too late ! 

I have done what it were well had ne'er been done. 

Jane. O would to God that act might be recalled ! 



198 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

Mary. What act ? 

Jane. That means me queen. 

Mary. Thou queen ! O never 

Shall regal crown clasp that unwrinkled brow ! 
Thou queen ? go, girl — betake thee to thy mappets ! 
Call Ascham back — philosophise — but never 
Presume to parley with grey counsellors, 
Nor ride forth in the front of harnessed knights ! 
Leave that to me, the daughter of a king. 

Edw. I have wronged thee to save the State from wrong. 
I had much to say : but faltering thought and tongue 
Forbid. Never shall foreign prince or prelate 
Bear sway in England. So my father willed. 
Cranmer, speak thou. 

North. Nay, I speak now. The king 

Still, madam, proffers hope, on penitence. 
The crown may yet be yours — this act annulled ; 
If here before this dying saint, in presence 
Of this most holy prelate, and this lady, 
Wise past her years, your errors you renounce. 

Mary. Sir, have you done ? simply I thus reply. 
Not to drag England from this slough of treason — 
Nor save this lady's head — nor yours, archbishop; — 
Not even my brother's life — would I abjure 
My faith, and forfeit heaven ! 

Cran. Pause, proud lady ! 

The end hath come. Lo, one among us stands, 
Chainer of every tongue ! queller of princes ! 
One moment more, and penitence were vain. 

All kneel by the king's couch. 

Edw. Lord keep thy people steadfast in the faith ! 
I die — bless all — Jesus receive my soul. [Dies. 

It is of undoubted value that the pupil should realise 
that the characters about whom he is hearing were 
brought into human relations with one another, but the 
reader must decide for himself what degree of historical 



HISTORY AND POETRY 199 

impossibility counterbalances allusive value. In this case 
Mary was not at the death-bed of her brother, although 
after his death she was summoned to attend his dying 
moments. Northumberland's motives were obvious, and 
fortunately for her she discovered the ruse in time. In- 
accuracy of fact, if not carried too far, is in itself no reason 
for discarding a poetic extract. Shakespeare's inaccura- 
cies may often be used as a basis for profitable exercises. 
Let it be repeated that it is only the theorist in his 
study who is disposed to be hypercritical in this matter. 
The schoolmaster who has memories of days when 
either he or his class were tired or stupid is likely to 
welcome the introduction of any matter that may lessen 
the strain without diverting the attention of his pupils 
from their work ; but the combination of improbabilities 
with mediocre workmanship to be found in the extract 
just quoted undoubtedly places it on the margin. This 
margin is easily crossed. It is surely unnecessary to 
analyse the reasons that make The Black Prince, by 
Menella Smedley, not wholly desirable : — 

I'll tell you a tale of a knight, my boy, 

The bravest that ever was known ; 
A lion he was in the fight, my boy, 

A lamb when the battle was done. 
Oh, he need not be named ! for who has not heard 
Of the glorious son of King Edward the Third ? 

Often he charged with spear and lance, 
At the head of his valorous knights ; 

But the battle of Poictiers, won in France, 
Was the noblest of all his fights ; 

And every British heart may be 

Glad when it thinks of that victory. 

The French were many, the English few, 
But the Black Prince little heeded : 



200 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

His knights, he knew, were brave and true, 

Their arms were all he needed ; 
He asked not how many might be the foe, 
Where are they ? was all he sought to know. 

or to make an inventory of the demerits of Joseph 
Anstice on The Death of Cceur de Lion : — 

One humble arm, one silent shaft could bring 

Fate's awful summons on its noiseless wing. 

Yet though the clarion spoke not, though the sound 

Of festal triumph scarce was heard around, 

In that dark hour a purer bliss was given, 

And peaceful seraphs hymned their joy in heaven, 

When on thy lips their own compassion hung, 

And mercy trembled on thy faltering tongue ; 

In thy last breath, forgiveness' voice was heard, 

And life's last conquest crowned thy latest word. 

or of the following lines on The Signing of Magna 
Carta : — 

Green meadow by the Thames — fair Runnymede, 
Where tyranny received its fateful blow, 
Thy name shall live while centuries come and go — 
Crowned with the flowers that blossom from thy seed. 

In vain thy wrath, oh king ! All impotent, 
Thy frenzied rage doth sink in terror now ; 
The sign of fear is on thy pallid brow, 
Wild, haggard eyes are on the Charter bent. 

The pen is thrust within that shaking hand ; 
And now his name doth ratify the scroll, 
The which doth give while ages onward roll, 
The boon of liberty to bless our land ! 

or of A Call on Sir Walter Raleigh, by Sarah Piatt : — 

The knaves speak not the truth, I see 
Sir Walter at the window there 
— That is the hat and sword, which he 
In pictures hath been pleased to wear. 



HISTORY AND POETRY 201 

There stands the very cloak whereon 
Elizabeth set foot. (But oh, 
Young diplomat, as things have gone 
Pity it is she soiled it so !) 

And there — but look, he's lost in smoke 
(That weirdly charmed Virginia weed) ; 
Make haste, bring anything ; his cloak — 
They save him with a shower, indeed. 1 

There is, then, a limit beyond which it is undesirable 
to go in the search for illustrative poetry, and we must 
be careful not to transcend it, hard-pressed though we 
may be in the search for allusive verse. 

It is refreshing to turn from poems like these to 
some of the excellent verse dealing with historical 
incidents that has been contributed by recent writers. 
Poems such as Mr. Dobson's Armada and Mr. Newbolt's 
Drake's Drum supply capital material. Indeed, for the 
seafaring life of the Elizabethan Age, verse can be found 
for two distinct stages of schoolboy life. In the earlier 
stage the two poems just mentioned and Macaulay's 
Armada can be read ; in the later stage stirring 
passages can be taken from Mr. Swinburne's Armada : — 

The wings of the south-west wind are widened ; the breath of 

his fervent lips, 
More keen than a sword's edge, fiercer than fire, falls full on 

the plunging ships — 

1 The last four extracts are quoted from E. Pertwee's English 
History in Verse. As far as these particular poems are concerned, 
it is not easy to agree with Mr. A. T. Pollard, who contributes a 
preface, that they are good channels through which to approach 
" the Glories of our National Inheritance from the human, 
imaginative, and sympathetic point of view." Neither is this, to 
quote the same writer, the right way " to dissipate the notion 
that history is a dry study." 



202 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

The pilot is he of their northward flight, their stay and their 

steersman he ; 
A helmsman clothed with the tempest, and girdled with 

strength to constrain the sea. 
And the host of them trembles and quails, caught fast in his 

hand as a bird in the toils ; 
For the wrath and the joy that fulfil him are mightier than 

man's whom he slays and spoils. 
And vainly with heart divided in sunder, and labour of 

wavering will, 
The lord of their host takes counsel with hope if haply their 

star shine still, 
If haply some light be left them of chance to renew and 

redeem the fray ; 
But the will of the black south-wester is lord of the councils 

of war to-day. 
One only spirit it quells not, a splendour undarkened of 

chance or time ; 
Be the praise of Oquendo for ever, a name as a star sublime. 
But here what aid in a hero's heart, what help in his hand 

may be? 
For ever the dark sea whitens and blackens the hollows and 

heights of the sea, 
And galley by galley, divided and desolate, founders ; and 

none takes heed, 
Nor foe nor friend, if they perish ; forlorn, cast off in their 

uttermost need, 
They sink in the whelm of the waters, as pebbles by children 

from shoreward hurled, 
In the North Sea's waters that end not, nor know they a 

bourn but the bourn of the world. 1 

What boys would not be stirred by these lines, or by 
the following extract from Mr. Noyes's Drake, describing 
the seaman on the eve of his voyage ? 

And on that night, while Drake 
Close in his London lodging lay concealed, 

1 Swinburne, The Armada, VI. iii. 



HISTORY AND POETRY 203 

Until he knew if it were peace or war 
With Spain (for he had struck on the high seas 
At Spain ; and well he knew if it were peace 
His blood would be made witness to that bond, 
And he must die a pirate's death or fly 
Westwards once more), there all alone he pored 
By a struggling rushlight o'er a well-thumbed chart 
Of magic islands in the enchanted seas, 
Dreaming, as boys and poets only dream 
With those that see God's wonders in the deep, 
Perilous visions of those palmy keys, 
Cocoa-nut islands, parrot-haunted woods, 
Crisp coral reefs and blue shark-finned lagoons 
Fringed with the creaming foam, mile upon mile 
Of mystery. Dream after dream went by, 
Colouring the brown air of that London night 
With many a mad miraculous romance. 1 

Or by the description of the Golden Hynde in the 
Pacific ? — 

Now like the soul of Ophir on the sea 
Glittered the Golden Hynde, and all her heart 
Turned home to England. As a child that finds 
A ruby ring upon the highway, straight 
Homeward desires to run with it, so she 
Yearned for her home and country. Yet the world 
Was all in arms behind her. Fleet on fleet 
Awaited her return. Along the coast 
The very churches melted down their chimes 
And cast them into cannon. To the south 
A thousand cannon watched Magellan's strait, 
And fleets were scouring all the sea like hounds 
With orders that where'er they came on Drake, 
Although he were the Dragon of their dreams, 
They should outblast his thunders and convey, 
Dead or alive, his body back to Spain. 2 



Drake : An English Epic, by Alfred Noyes, Bk. i. 
2 Ibid. Bk. vi. 



204 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

With boys at the highest of the stages that we are 
considering there are a number of historical plays by 
modern writers which can be read with advantage for the 
portrayal of character that they contain. The text-book 
speaks of " Babington's plot," but makes no suggestion 
that Babington may have been a man with high ideals 
and possessed of a rare quality of devotion. Here the 
historical play acts as a corrective, as in the following 
extract from Swinburne's Mary Stuart : — 

Babington. Welcome, good friends, and welcome this good day 
That casts out hope and brings in certainty 
To turn our spring to summer. Now not long 
The flower that crowns the front of all our faiths 
Shall bleach to death in prison ; now the trust 
That took the night with fire as with a star 
Grows red and broad as sunrise in our sight 
Who held it dear and desperate once, now sure, 
But not more dear, being surer. 1 

Time forbids to give more than a few extracts from 
such plays during the history hour, but there are other 
methods. In boarding-schools it is an easy matter to 
organise parties for rapid reading out of school ; in day- 
schools the difficulties are greater but not insuperable. 
Swinburne's Bothwell, Tennyson's Becket and Mary 
Tudor, and, with older boys, Browning's Strafford can 
be read in this way. 

The method of using shorter poems, when once 
selected, must largely be left to the teacher. They 
may simply be read with little exposition, or they may 
be used for revision purposes when they lend themselves 
to this procedure. Mr. Dobson's A Ballad of the 
Armada affords a good illustration of this : — 

1 Swinburne, Mary Stuart, Act I. Sc. i. 



HISTORY AND POETRY 205 

King Philip had vaunted his claims ; 
He had sworn for a year he would sack us ; 
With an army of heathenish names 
He was coming to faggot and stack us ; 
Like the thieves of the sea he would track us, 
And shatter our ships on the main ; 
But we had bold Neptune to back us — 
And where are the galleons of Spain ? 

His carackes were christened of dames, 
To the kirtles whereof he would tack us ; 
With his saints and his gilded stern-frames 
He had thought like an egg-shell to crack us : 
Now Howard may get to his Flaccus, 
And Drake to his Devon again, 
And Hawkins bowl rubbers to Bacchus — 
For where are the galleons of Spain ? 

Let his Majesty hang to St. James 
The axe that he whetted to hack us ; 
He must play at some lustier games 
Or at sea he can hope to out-thwack us ; 
To his mines of Peru he would pack us 
To tug at his bullet and chain ; 
Alas that his Greatness should lack us. 
But where are the galleons of Spain ? 

Envoy 

Gloriana — the Don may attack us 
Whenever his stomach be fain ; 
He must reach us before he can rack us — 
And where are the galleons of Spain ? 

King Philip had vaunted his claims. What claims 
were these ? He had sworn for a year he would sack us. 
Had he sworn for a year only ? For how many years 
had he actually sworn ? With an army of heathenish 
names. The class will be quite ready to retail to you 
some names of Spanish ships and commanders, if these 



206 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

have been given to them. Like the thieves of the sea he 
would track us. Had the English commanders been 
guilty of piracy or not ? The points may here be 
revised. But we had bold Neptune to back us — 
And where are the galleons of Spain ? Where indeed ? 
Let a boy go up to the map and find the coasts and the 
rocks upon which they had foundered. The whole of 
the poem abounds in similar opportunities, which can 
be used to the utmost, or only partially, as time permits. 
There is perhaps a danger that with stupid pupils 
who have not properly mastered the facts which such 
poems are intended to illuminate, odds and ends of 
imagery or of expression may stick in their minds and 
completely distort any conception of the historical fact 
that may be there. This is well illustrated in the case 
of the astonishing answer given by Muriel Howard 
(p. 109) : " The Spanish Armada was a fleet of ships 
which set out for a sail on the water. The day was 
nice, fine, clear, and the water was calm and everything 
the sailors wanted." This can be derived from no 
source other than the opening lines of Macaulay's 
Armada : — 

It was about the lovely close of a warm summer's day, 
There came a gallant merchant-ship full sail to Plymouth Bay. 

The danger is, however, not a serious one if the 
teaching be of even moderate competency. In the 
hands of an inefficient craftsman the best instruments 
are of little use. 

For the history of the nineteenth century a useful 
selection can be made from Tennyson's poems. The 
lines on Buonaparte, the Ode on the Death of the Duke of 
Wellington, the stanzas on The Third of February 1852, 






HISTORY AND POETRY 207 

The Charge of the Light Brigade and The Charge of the 
Heavy Brigade, A Welcome to Alexandra (1863), The 
Defence of Lucknozv, the lines written To the Marquis of 
Dufferin and Ava, and on The Jubilee of Queen Victoria, 
all illustrate historical events in an interesting manner, 
while the Ode for the Opening of the International Ex- 
hibition, the stanzas on The Fleet, and the lines on 
Politics would afford occasion for valuable discussions 
upon social progress, national defence, and the cleavage 
of political parties ; but it is perhaps too much to hope 
that our examination-ridden schools will find time to 
consider topics of such importance. 

In this sketch of the opportunities for using English 
verse in connexion with the history lesson attention has 
designedly been given to short poems, lyrics, or extracts 
from larger works that admit of separation from their 
context. Naturally it is not intended that longer works 
which deal with historical events or illustrate the 
social life of a period should be neglected ; but their 
treatment must be different. They are in many cases 
too important merely to be introduced into the history 
lesson for illustrative purposes, and should therefore be 
read in the hours devoted to English Literature and 
correlated with the English History. Piers Plowman's 
Vision and Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales 
may be read in a modernised form in connexion with 
the fourteenth century, and an attempt should be made 
to give boys some knowledge of the contents of all 
Shakespeare's English Historical plays, of which an 
inexpensive edition can be procured, 1 while one or two 
of them can be read carefully during the year. With 

1 Histories, Poems, and Sonnets of Shakespeare in Everyman's 
Library. 



208 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

certain boys such a play as Marlowe's Edward II. might 
be read out of school as already suggested. Equally 
important is the correlation of English prose literature 
with the history period ; but this topic lies outside the 
scope of the present chapter. 

There is yet another manner in which verse of the 
" ballad " class may be utilised. It is a profitable exer- 
cise to compare the account of an incident given in a 
ballad with those presented more soberly in prose 
chronicles. The following extracts will illustrate this : — 

As itt beffell in m(i)dsumer-time, 

When burds singe sweetlye on euery tree, 

Our noble king, King Henery the Eighth, 
Ouer the riuer of Thames past hee. 

Hee was no sooner ouer the riuer, 

Downe in a fforrest to take the ayre, 
But eighty merchants of London cittye 

Came kneeling before King Henery there. . . . 

" To Ffrance nor Fflanders dare we nott passe, 
Nor Burdeaux voyage wee dare not ffare, 

And all ffor a ffalse robber that lyes on the seas, 
And robb(s) vs of our merchants-ware." . . . 

" He is a proud Scott that will robb vs all 
If wee were twenty shipps and hee but one." 

The king looket ouer his left shoulder, 
Amongst his lords and barrons soe ffree : 

" Haue I neuer lord in all my realme 
Will ffeitch yond traitor vnto mee ? " 

" Yes, that dare I ! " sayes my lord Chareles Howard, 
Neere to the king wheras hee did stand ; 

" If that Your Grace will giue me leaue, 
My selfe wilbe the only man." 



HISTORY AND POETRY 209 

" Thou shalt haue six hundred men," saith our king, 
" And chuse them out of my realme soe ffree ; 

Besids marriners and boyes, 

To guide the great shipp on the sea." . . . 

With pikes, and gunnes, and bowemen bold, 
This noble Howard is gone to the sea 

On the day before midsummer-euen, 

And out att Thames mouth sayled they. . . . 

Then follows a description of Andrew Barton : — 

" Hee is brasse within, and Steele without, 

And beames hee beares in his topcastle stronge ; 

His shipp hath ordinance cleane round about ; 
Besids, my lord, hee is verry well mand. 

" He hath a pinnace, is deerlye dight, 
Saint Andrews crosse, that is his guide ; 

His pinnace beares nine score men and more, 
Besids fifteen cannons on euery side." . . . 

" Now by my ffaith," sais Charles, my lord Haward, 
"Then yonder Scott is a worthye wight." 

" Take in your ancyents and your standards, 

Yea that no man shall them see, 
And put me fforth a white willow wand, 

As merchants vse to sayle the sea." 

But they stirred neither top nor mast, 

But Sir Andrew they passed by : 
" Whatt English are yonder," said Sir Andrew, 

" That can so little curtesye ? 

" I haue beene admirall ouer the sea 

More than these yeeres three ; 
There is neuer an English dog, nor Portingall, 

Can passe this way without leaue of mee. 

J 4 



210 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

" But now yonder pedlers, they are past, 

Which is no little greffe to me : 
Ffeich them backe," sayes Sir Andrew Bartton, 

" They shall all hang att my maine-mast tree." 

With that the pinnace itt shott of, 

That my Lord Haward might itt well ken ; 

Itt stroke downe my lords fforemast, 

And killed fourteen of my lord his men. . . . 

But att Sir Andrew hee shott then ; 

Hee made sure to hitt his marke ; 
Vnder the spole of his right arme 

Hee smote Sir Andrew quite throw the hart. 

Yett ffrom the tree he wold not start, 

But he dinged to itt with might and maine ; 

Vnder the coller then of his iacke, 

He stroke Sir Andrew thorrow the braine. 

" Ffight on, my men," sayes Sir Andrew Bartton, 
"lam hurt, but I am not slaine : 

I'le lay mee downe and bleed a-while, 
And then I'le rise and fright againe. 

Ffight on, my men," sayes Sir Andrew Bartton, 
" These English Doggs they bite soe lowe ; 

Ffight on ffor Scotland and Saint Andrew 
Till you heare my whistle blowe ! " 

But when the[y] cold not heare his whistle blowe, 
Sayes Harry Hunt, I'le lay my head 

You may bord yonder noble shipp, my lord, 
For I know Sir Andrew hee is dead. 

With that they borded this noble shipp, 
Soe did they itt with might and maine : 

The ffound eighteen score Scotts aliue, 
Besids the rest were maimed and slaine. 



HISTORY AND POETRY 211 

My lord Haward tooke a sword in his hand, 

And smote of Sir Andrews head ; 
The Scotts stood by did wcepe and mourne, 

But neuer a word durst speake or say. . . . 

With his head they sayled into England againe, 
With right good will, and fforce and main, 

And the day beffore Newyeeres euen, 

Into Thames mouth they came againe. . . . 

Several contemporary chronicles record the same 
event. 

I. Hall's Chronicle, 1548. — In June (15 n), the king being 
at Leicester, tidings were brought to him that Andrew Barton, 
a Scottish man and a pirate of the sea, saying that the king 
of Scots had war with the Portingales, did rob every nation, 
and so stopped the king's streams that no merchants almost 
could pass, and when he took the Englishmen's goods, he said 
they were Portingales' goods, and thus he haunted and robbed 
at every haven's mouth. The king, moved greatly with this 
crafty pirate, sent Sir Edmund Howard, Lord Admiral of 
England, and Lord Thomas Howard, son and heir to the 
Earl of Surrey, in all the haste to the sea, which hastily made 
ready two ships, and without any more abode took the sea, 
and by chance of weather were severed. The Lord Howard, 
lying in the Downs, perceived where Andrew was making 
toward Scotland, and so fast the said lord chased him that he 
overtook him, and there was a sore battle. The Englishmen 
were fierce, and the Scots defended them manfully, and ever 
Andrew blew his whistle to encourage his men, yet for all that, 
the Lord Howard and his men, by clean strength, entered the 
main deck ; then the Englishmen entered on all sides, and 
the Scots fought sore on the hatches, but in conclusion Andrew 
was taken, which was so sore wounded that he died there ; 
then all the remnant of the Scots were taken, with their ship 
called The Lion. All this while was the Lord Admiral in 
chase of the bark of Scotland called Jenny Pirwyn, which was 
wont to sail with The Lion in company, and ... he laid him 
on board and fiercely assailed him, and the Scots, as hardy 



212 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

and well - stomached men, them defended ; but the Lord 
Admiral so encouraged his men that they entered the bark 
and slew many, and took all the other. Then were these 
two ships taken, and brought to Blackwall the second day of 
August, and all the Scots were sent to the Bishop's place of 
York, and there remained, at the king's charge, till other 
direction was taken for them. . . . 

II. Bishop Lesley, writing some years later, openly accuses 
the English of fraud. " In the month of June," he says, 
"Andrew Barton, being on the sea in warfare contrar the 
Portingals, against whom he had a letter of mark, Sir Edmund 
Howard, Lord Admiral of England, and Lord Thomas 
Howard, son and heir to the Earl of Surrey, past forth at the 
king of England's command, with certain of his best ships ; 
and the said Andrew, being in his voyage sailing toward 
Scotland, having only but one ship and a bark, they set upon 
at the Downs, and at the first entry did make sign unto them 
that there was friendship standing betwix the two realms, and 
therefore thought them to be friends ; wherewith they, 
nothing moved, did cruelly invade, and he manfully and 
courageously defended, where there was many slain, and 
Andrew himself sore wounded, that he died shortly ; and his 
ship, called The Lion, and the bark, called Jenny Pirrvyne, 
which, with the Scots men that was living, were had to 
London, and kept there as prisoners in the Bishop of York's 
house, and after was sent home in Scotland." 

Here the class may be expected to note the discrep- 
ancies between the ballad and the prose accounts, and 
may be shown that the ballad, apart from its added 
colour and dramatic effect, illustrates the importance of 
the London trade with Flanders and Bordeaux. 1 The 
exercise might well introduce a useful discussion of 
evidences. 

1 This illustration is borrowed from Studies i?i Historical 
Method, by M. S. Barnes (1897), a work that can strongly be 
recommended. 



CHAPTER X 

SOME PROBLEMS AND DEVICES OF CLASS-ROOM 
PRACTICE 

SHOULD the atmosphere of the history hour be a modern 
one or should it be redolent of the period that is being 
taught ? Opinions differ. " All history teaching," say 
some, " should begin and end with the policeman." That 
is to say, an aspect of present-day society is to be the 
starting-point, and the object of the history lesson is to 
explain how it came into existence, to elucidate its 
historical meaning. The policeman is to lead on to a 
realisation of the stages by which the modern fabric of 
law and order has been built up ; throughout the history 
lesson the pupil is to be in the twentieth century. On 
the other side it is asserted with equal force that the 
object of the history lesson is to get the pupil's ideas 
out of their modern groove and to induce him to consider 
facts of a certain kind in a new setting, that he should 
be soaked in the century concerned until he seems to 
live in it ; in short, that the intrusion of modern life into 
the hour devoted to the fifteenth century is as objection- 
able as the employment of English during a French 
lesson. Here the Aristotelian doctrine of " the mean " 
does not help us. Teaching frequently has to be con- 

213 



214 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

ducted by exaggeration. The middle ages will not be 
appreciated by pupils unless their peculiar atmosphere 
has been given by every device in the teacher's power, 
nor will the modern reference of history be realised by 
them unless they are made to transfer the circumstances 
in thought to the present day. In this case success in 
teaching is reached not by holding to the mean but by 
oscillating between extremes. 

It is well to make boys realise in terms of fifteenth 
century life that the mediaeval Londoner liked a strong 
king because for him he meant material well-being and 
commercial stability ; but it is equally necessary to 
bring home to them that the same factors are at work 
nowadays, and that the mechanism of stability has 
been built up by a long series of protests and demands 
on the part of traders. " Jones, what did you have for 
dinner yesterday ? " A list of comestibles is extracted 
from the unwilling Jones, and may be black-boarded : 
mutton, rice pudding, bread, sugar. Which of these are 
produced in this country? Only the mutton and the bread. 
But the mutton may have come from New Zealand, and 
the bread must have in it at least a proportion of 
" Manitoba No. I. hard " or it would not suit the public 
taste. What would happen to Jones's dinner in time of 
war or if, in time of peace, our navy were insufficient to 
ensure the safety of merchant vessels ? The price of all 
these commodities would rise on account of the risk and 
occasional loss of cargoes. In consequence Jones would 
have had either a smaller dinner or one of inferior 
quality. How about the tradesmen who sell these 
goods? It is easy to show that the increase in retail 
price would not make up to them for the lack of stability 
and security, and that if any government seriously 



SOME PROBLEMS AND DEVICES 215 

endangered these it would not remain long in power. 
Again, London in the fifteenth century is in danger of 
being occupied and sacked by a victorious army. It is 
easy to show that if such a danger threatened London 
at the present day, Jones's merchant father might lose 
his income. In all such instances it is possible by a 
skilful alternation to keep the pupil in the century at 
which he is working without allowing him to forget that 
his own century presents similar situations. 

When introducing a class to the conditions of evidence 
it is frequently desirable to start with a modern instance. 
" Who saw the South African football match on Satur- 
day ? " A few boys plead guilty. Who did not see it 
but heard of it from an eye-witness ? Who did not see 
it but read of it in the papers ? Which of the boys who 
were at the match were close by when there was that 
dispute, and what opinions did they form as to the 
rights of the matter ? None of them were close by ; 
but although they could not see it plainly they have all 
formed definite though diverse views. Here we have a 
number of the factors to be considered in estimating 
evidence. Which boys are likely to have the most 
accurate knowledge of the match ? It will be suggested 
that the eye-witnesses have the most trustworthy informa- 
tion, and for the present this answer may be taken. 
But are the eye-witnesses likely to have a knowledge of 
the whole match? No, because it is impossible from 
any one spot to see with clearness what takes place all 
over the field ; indeed, it is evident in the present instance 
that the eye-witnesses do not agree. Here, then, is one 
source of error. The eye-witness may not have seen 
correctly, or may have misinterpreted what he actually 
saw. The additional sources of error involved in the 



216 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

other modes of obtaining information about the match 
may now be considered. The boys who heard of the 
match from an eye-witness have no guarantee that he 
reported with accuracy what he saw, those who read of 
it in the paper cannot be sure that the reporter did not 
make mistakes when writing down his impressions from 
memory. So that in the case of second-hand knowledge 
we have as possible sources of error, (i) Errors of 
observation ; (2) Errors of inference from facts observed ; 
(3) Errors of reporting caused by either inaccurate 
memory or carelessness, or both. We may now proceed 
to ask from what sources the historian of football in 
England twenty years hence would get his information 
about this particular match, and conclude that he would 
consult the newspapers or any other written accounts 
that he could find. With any luck the teacher may 
find that the rival local papers have given slightly 
discrepant accounts of the match. What will our 
imaginary historian do in this case ? He will have to 
reconcile the two accounts or find a third account to 
check them by. Possibly he might try to find some one 
living who actually saw and took notes of the match. 
After an introduction of this kind boys will be far readier 
than before to appreciate the question of 'evidence when 
it arises in connexion with a document. 

Allusion has already been made (pp. 134-5) to the 
boy's notebook, and it has been suggested that on one 
page may be placed a line of time and on the opposite 
page facts and illustrations that are not to be found 
in the text-book. If this suggestion were uniformly 
adopted, it is evident that the pupil would at school 
obtain no practice in taking notes freely. How far is 
it advisable that he should do so? To this as to so 



SOME PROBLEMS AND DEVICES 217 

many other questions about teaching it is difficult to 
give an answer in general terms. It is undoubtedly of 
the greatest importance that boys should leave school 
able to listen to a discourse or take part in a discussion, 
and at the same time to get down a few notes which 
represent the pith of what they have heard. To learn 
to do this is a good mental training in itself, and the 
inability to take such notes is a serious disadvantage 
where University work is concerned. On the other 
hand, many boys find it difficult at once to listen and to 
select matter for notes, and with certain classes the 
result of " free " note-taking is that the boy's notebook 
contains a page of illegible and badly selected notes 
very ill-fitted for purposes of revision, while he may 
remember little or nothing of the rest of the lesson. It 
is not uncommon to find boys of fourteen who are so 
stupid or have been so ill-trained that they find it 
difficult to copy accurately into their notebooks what 
has been written on the black-board. For these, and in 
most cases for middle-form boys, it is necessary that 
some notes should be dictated if the boy's notebook is 
to supplement the text-book as a means of revision. A 
middle course can be taken. The upper half of the 
page can be reserved for dictated notes, leaving the 
lower half for free notes. These the boy need not be 
compelled to take, but he may be encouraged to do so, 
and when the notebooks are inspected, additional marks 
can be given if the free notes have been well taken. 
The boy's notebook will then present the following 
appearance : — 



218 TEACHING OF HISTORY 



Line of time and sequence 
of events. 


Dictated Notes. 


Free Notes. 



If this device is adopted it is possible to introduce a 
small amount of free note-taking at an early stage, and 
the quantity can be increased in the higher forms. 

By the time that a class can be trusted to take notes 
freely without much or any supervision, they are reaching 
the highest of the stages considered in the foregoing 
chapters, and a slight change of method is becoming 
desirable. The class-room library has not been neglected, 
and it will now begin to supplement the source-book and 
the text-book to a greater degree than formerly. In 
few boys' schools are class-room libraries to be found ; 
yet if good teaching is to be synonymous with good 
learning their presence is highly desirable for modern 
subjects, such as English history, English literature and 
geography, and now that books have been cheapened 
there is no longer any excuse for failing to provide them. 
Certainly in schools which are subsidised by the State 
and the rate-payer, it should be realised that the subsidy 
may be wasted for the lack of a small additional ex- 
penditure on class-room libraries. The school library, 
no matter how well equipped, is no substitute for the 
class-room library, as it is not under the teacher's eye, 
and he has no opportunity, with the limited time at his 
disposal, of assuring himself that the boys take out the 
volumes that they are asked to read. When the books 
are in the class-room, it is far easier to control their use, 
and in addition they may be consulted during the lesson. 



SOME PROBLEMS AND DEVICES 219 

It is difficult to lay down rules for the formation of 
such libraries, as the details of their composition must 
depend largely on the period studied and the resources 
at the disposal of the school, but a few principles are 
worthy of consideration. There should be more than 
one copy even of the larger works, while of smaller 
books four or five copies are desirable. For the 
Elizabethan period, with a class of boys using the three- 
volume Gardiner, the following list would form a good 
nucleus : Froude's History of England, vols, vi.-xiii. ; 
Lingard's History of England, vol. vi. ; A. F. Pollard's 
Political History of England, 1547 -1603; Creighton's 
Elizabeth ; Martin Hume's Burleigh ; Corbett's Drake 
and the Tudor Navy; Traill's Social England, vol. iii.; 
A. F. Pollard's Tudor Tracts; G. W. Prothero's Select 
Statutes ; Hakluyt's Voyages. It would be easy to add 
to the number, but the fear is that to provide several 
copies even of these will be considered too great a tax 
on the school finances. Here we can only repeat what 
has already been said of volumes of extracts from con- 
temporary authorities, that if such essential apparatus 
is not provided the teacher may give the most admir- 
able lessons, but the class will be given no opportunity 
of reading history written with atmosphere, of making 
an abstract from an account longer even than that of a 
large text-book, and of comparing the different views 
taken by various writers of the same episode or person- 
ality. When the conditions are so adverse it may be 
doubted if it is worth while for upper forms to devote 
much time to the subject. 

When the necessary books have been supplied it is 
easy to make the class contribute largely to the lesson. 
There are frequently five or six boys willing to take a 



220 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

considerable amount of trouble and to read for them- 
selves out of school. With a little guidance these will 
be prepared to produce in class the differing views on an 
episode in the Reformation taken by a Protestant and a 
Catholic historian respectively, or to discuss from the 
standpoints of the authors they have consulted the 
characters of the leading personages of the period. It 
is often a useful exercise to plan out beforehand with 
the class the leading features of the next lesson, and to 
ask each boy or group of boys to be ready to supply 
special information on definite topics, giving them 
references to the books available. It is true that much 
work of this kind is beyond the scope of middle-school 
boys, and that its treatment therefore lies outside the 
scope of this book, but even in a middle class some good 
work may be done with the aid of a group of clever 
boys. In addition, class-room debates on stock subjects 
such as the execution of Mary Queen of Scots are 
greatly facilitated by access to books of reference. 
Even if, through lack of time, it is difficult to make 
much use of these larger works, their presence is none 
the less desirable, as the class which sees them daily on 
the book-shelves can scarcely fail to realise that they are 
there to be consulted. Without some such experience 
the majority of boys in a secondary school may well 
go through life without seeing even the outsides of the 
greater treatises, while to have read an author's name 
on the binding is often the first step towards reading his 
works. 

It remains to mention two series of volumes which 
are of the greatest value in every period both for 
purposes of " local history " and for small detail : the 
Historic Towns series, edited by the late Professor 



SOME PROBLEMS AND DEVICES 221 

Freeman, and Besant's Survey of London. These should 
not be omitted in the composition of our library. For 
the understanding of English mediaeval history a know- 
ledge of the topography of mediaeval London cannot 
be overrated, and this can be obtained in a most 
interesting manner from the maps to be found in the 
Survey. One, at least, of these, Wyngaerde's Panorama of 
London in 1343, can be obtained separately, 1 and should 
be placed on the walls of the class-room, since it gives 
in a very concrete form a bird's-eye view of London, 
showing clearly the city walls and gates, the Tower, the 
Steelyard, the Abbey, Westminster Hall, the mansions 
of historic personages, and many other elements of detail. 
In no other way is it so easy to give boys a sense of 
familiarity with the spots where so many scenes of 
English history were enacted. 

1 Panorama of London, Westminster, and Southwark as they 
appeared a.d. 1543, from a drawing by Anty van den Wyngaerde. 
Sutherland Collection. Bodleian Library (A. & C. Black, 
price is.). 



CHAPTER XI 

THE TEACHER OF HISTORY 

Perhaps it is not fair to blame a nation which values 
material prosperity highly if in its organisation of educa- 
tion it lays the greatest stress on the material side. 
Money is generally forthcoming for school -buildings, 
care is frequently lavished on dietary, while to the teacher 
are devoted only the money and the care that happen 
to remain over. As a natural consequence of this, both 
the salaries and the social standing of teachers have 
tended to be lower than in the case of other professions ; 
as a further consequence teaching has frequently been 
ill carried out, and, as inevitably, a great scepticism of 
and dislike for education has filled the British mind. 
This scepticism has often been justified. A British 
parent in business knows that his son's teacher is in 
receipt of a low salary, that his prospects are poor, 
and the security of his position small ; he argues, not 
without reason, that in an expanding Empire the 
opportunities of earning a livelihood are so numerous 
that able men of spirit will not for long remain in a pur- 
suit which offers so few material attractions. Although 
prepared to grant that some men will teach because 
they are interested in education and wish in this way to 



THE TEACHER OF HISTORY 223 

devote themselves to social service, he will argue that 
the State cannot count on manning one of its services 
solely by enthusiastic volunteers ; indeed, he may point 
out that even in the Church, which is supposed to 
appeal to motives of a special kind, the quality of the 
worker has tended to deteriorate as the value of tithe 
has fallen. Consequently, although he has no very 
definite ideas as to the right qualifications of a teacher, 
he continues to be sceptical and to grudge the money 
that he is forced to contribute towards what he is apt to 
regard as an organised fraud. He therefore welcomes the 
more material element in the organisation, the army 
of inspectors, the array of scheduled reports, as apparent 
checks upon inefficiency in teaching. And yet it should 
be evident that before teaching can be organised and 
pressed into shape it must be there to organise, that 
before ill-regulated teaching-power can be disciplined 
into form by an external agency it must be there to dis- 
cipline, that before the enthusiasm of the specialist can 
be curbed and brought into line with practical exigencies 
it must be there to curb. No organisation, no inspection, 
no repressive force can be productive of good unless it 
has as material to work upon, and indeed finds opposed 
to it, a vital force which we may call teaching-insight, 
which will react against the efforts made to repress it 
and will gain strength through this reaction, which can 
be guided into sound channels and may be pruned and 
clipped with advantage, but which never can be produced 
by organisation from without. 

This tendency of the community to lay stress upon 
the mechanical side of education at the expense of the 
spiritual element is perhaps easier to justify for the 
traditional subjects of instruction than for those recently 



224 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

introduced. In the early stages of Latin teaching, as 
Latin teaching used to be conceived, much of the work is 
of a mechanical nature. Paradigms have to be learned 
and rules applied, and while an underpaid drudge will 
not do good work, he may lay a fair mechanical basis for 
what is to follow. Similarly in the early stages of mathe- 
matical teaching, although a teacher who has no insight, 
and who teaches only because his abilities will not 
permit him to earn a scanty living in any other pursuit, 
will waste much of his pupils' time, he will none the less 
drill them in certain processes and formulae which are 
not without value. 

When we turn to historical and literary subjects the 
case is different. It is in connexion with these as 
opposed to pure linguistic that teachers are now for 
the first time compelled to face real educational issues. 
With history, as with any other subject in which ideas 
rather than symbolism and formulae are the chief element, 
the teacher's qualities and equipment are of the first 
importance. Unless he possesses insight it may be as 
misleading to estimate the progress of education by the 
number of schools and of inspectors as it would be to 
gauge the religious feeling of a community by the 
number of persons who pay pew rents. In history- 
teaching the teacher is introducing his pupils not to 
linguistic symbols or to conventional knowledge, but to 
ideas which really matter ; the exact method of present- 
ing these ideas and the exact process that the pupil is 
induced to perform upon them are of real importance ; 
there is no element that can be given stupidly without 
immediate and permanent loss ; there is no conception 
which may not be degraded if the imparting of it is 
entrusted to men whose grip of social factors is weak and 



THE TEACHER OF HISTORY 225 

whose occupations out of school are trivial ; there is no 
room for the dull performance of hodman's work. The 
subject-matter of the teaching is human character and 
social progress ; as surely as the handling of it is good it 
will produce in the rising generation an intensification 
of social thought, as surely as it lacks inspiration it will 
tend to the deadening of such thought. With a subject- 
matter of this kind there is no middle way, and thus 
history - teaching requires in a marked degree the 
qualities which are found in all good teachers, and 
which can be dispensed with only when the matter of 
the subjects taught is conventional and unreal, standing 
in no close relationship to human life. 

What particular body of knowledge and what his- 
torical training is needed as well ? Is it, for example, 
essential that all history-teaching in middle forms should 
be given by specialists in history who teach little or 
nothing else, and who may therefore teach it to sets 
and not to forms ? This question does not concern 
history alone. The demand that subjects shall be 
taught properly produces an answering demand for 
specialists. Geography, taught on scientific lines, is 
asked for. " We must get a specialist in geography," 
say the school authorities. Similar pressure produces a 
demand for a history specialist, and soon a specialist in 
English literature will be asked for. As result the school 
tends to be converted into a system of set masters, each 
teaching his special subject, and the old " form " system, 
under which each master taught a good many subjects 
to the same boys and saw a good deal of them, tends 
to disappear. It may be asked if this tendency would 
not be a calamity if allowed to go to extremes. To 
teach sets only and to be confined to one subject is 

15 



226 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

probably narrowing to the teacher, and it also deprives 
the boy of that constant intercourse with one master 
which has often been productive of good, and which is 
especially valuable when a subject whose content may 
be of so intimate a nature as that of history is in 
question. In addition it is only with the form-master 
system that the unpremeditated and internal correlation 
of subjects can be carried out. The solution of the 
difficulty is a compromise which lays more or less 
stress on the grouping of a certain number of subjects 
under one teacher, and it may be hoped that this com- 
promise will approximate as far as possible to the form- 
master system. Naturally it would not be suggested 
that the same teacher should teach literary and mathe- 
matical subjects unless the conditions were exceptional, 
but there is no reason why with middle forms the same 
teacher should not teach history, geography, and English 
literature, or that a classic should not, in addition to 
some classics, teach history and English literature. 

Neither is there any reason why a man who has had 
a rigorous training in the classics should not take up 
history and teach it even though it is not one of his 
degree subjects. If it is urged that after his professional 
duties are over he has no time or energy to break fresh 
ground, this can be only because he is overworked, and 
the sooner such conditions of work are altered the better. 
It must be recognised that a system, which leaves 
assistant masters no time for self-culture, tends in the 
long run to waste the money of the tax-payers. It 
is impossible for teaching to remain efficient unless 
teachers have some leisure and the will to use it rightly. 1 

1 It is also in place to note that one function of a course 
of professional training for teaching should be to introduce a 



THE TEACHER OF HISTORY 227 

Therefore, although it is desirable to have at a 
school some specialists in history, 1 it is not essential for 
good teaching that the teacher must necessarily have 
specialised in history to the exclusion of other interests 
In any case the specialist will have to re-read his subject 
from the standpoint of school needs before he can teach 
it, and it is frequently an assistance to teaching if a 
competent man gets up a subject while engaged in 
school practice, as in these conditions the salient points 
and the elements of interest do not escape him. 

Our history teacher, then, besides a good knowledge 
of his subject, must have a suitable personality and a 
thoughtful outlook upon life, but this does not com- 
plete his equipment. He also needs a grip of method 
so that his practice may exhibit the utmost spontaneity 
working in connexion with a clearly planned mechanism. 
Such method is an addition to personality, and cannot 
fitly be contrasted with it, although this contrast is 
sometimes made by those who maintain that the teacher 
is of more value than the method, and the personality 
than the manner of teaching. The personality that 
admits of this contrast may be little more than char- 
acteristics of manner or the freshness and breeziness of 
youth, excellent qualities, no doubt, but not to be 
counted on as a possession for life, while the method 
that admits of this contrast can be little more than a 
lifeless mechanism, a dull arrangement or rearrangement 
of subject-matter. 

True personality involves elements of self-control, 

specialist in one subject to the literature and the methods of the 
other subjects which work in with his own to make a suitable 
group for school purposes. 

1 The great increase in the number of graduates in history 
should make these easy to procure. 



1/ 
1/ 



228 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

while true method involves that control of subject- 
matter which increases its meaning by giving it a new 
form. This control of ideas is not found without 
personality, and such a personality is not found without 
the control which renders method possible ; it is, indeed, 
increased by the constant effort to manipulate and 
present ideas so that the meaning which they convey 
shall be convincing and suggestive. There need be no 
fear that method of this kind will lead to rigidity. 
Method is more than a self-imposed mode of action ; it 
involves a daily revision, justification, and reimposition of 
the mode. In this it must be contrasted with mechanism 
which tends to be invariable, or is reconstructed only 
when its rigidity has led to disaster. Method, while it 
works on a basis of small elements of mechanism, com- 
bines and recombines them to suit the exigencies of 
the moment. Far from destroying initiative it actually 
fosters it. It is characteristic of mind that when it 
arranges restrictions for itself it tends to increase its own 
energy. The poet loves to arrange for himself an 
elaborate form of metre, and by his spontaneity 
rises superior to the self-imposed limitation, 

In truth the prison unto which we doom 
Ourselves, no prison is. 

and self-imposed form of this kind, which feeds the 
spontaneity that is to struggle against it, is the mark 
and the instrument of the good teacher. 

Method is not acquired in a day, and from the beginner 
in history-teaching comparatively little can be demanded. 
Straightforward exposition and examination is frequently 
all that he is capable of, and the attempt to do more may 
distract his attention from the class. His mind should 



THE TEACHER OF HISTORY 229 

be stored with a knowledge of the possible varieties of 
method, but in the beginning he will do well to draw on 
his storehouse but little. It is when the first novelty of 
teaching has worn off that the necessity for method 
makes itself apparent. Teaching is a nerve-consuming 
process ; vitality of nerve soon fails, and if vitality of 
spirit is not cultivated, dullness and inefficiency are the 
result. For the teacher who has thoroughly settled 
down to routine, who has reached the stage at which 
the varieties of school experience seem to have exhausted 
themselves, the really serious struggle with the teaching 
life is beginning. If no effort is made the result easily 
may be that unimaginative process which is effective 
in producing examination results, but which inevitably 
destroys the educative and suggestive value of the subject. 
Where the teaching of such a subject as history, dealing 
with important factors of life and social progress, is 
concerned, it is of importance that it should not be 
entrusted to teachers who succumb to the influences of 
routine. 1 At all cost it must be taken away from those 
who refuse to undergo the stern discipline of form that 
the handling of important topics demands, at all cost it 
must be removed from the control of those who think 
that "it is the teacher who must generalise from and 
analyse facts." Teachers must be found who, guided 
by instinct or professional training, have learned to 
keep the presentation of their subject under continual 

1 For some years to come the teacher of history will un- 
doubtedly have much to struggle against. He may at any time 
find himself working under a headmaster whose one idea is 
results in examination, or may have to prepare for inspection by 
an inspector who is unable to see farther than the "set-piece" 
lesson which can so easily be produced, but to the detriment of 
more subtle work. 



230 TEACHING OF HISTORY 

control and to introduce the element of form when the 
subject-matter tends to be too attractive or too discursive, 
who realise that frequently their aim should be to make 
the work harder rather than easier for their pupils, that 
the road of rapid and superficial inference leads to mental 
sluggishness, and the way of careless judgment to moral 
weakness. As compared with the claims of history to 
be a leading subject in the curriculum, the arguments in 
favour of " linguistic " read like special pleading, but the 
validity of these claims depends on the efforts of teachers 
who have learned to treat their subject in accordance 
with the dictates of method. 



INDEX 



Accuracy, criteria of, 31 

Aristotle, no 

Associationist psychology, 113 

Ballads, a mode of using, 208 
Battles, conciliation of discrepant 

accounts of, 67-78 
Bemheim, E. , 25 

Catkins, M. W., 112 

Character, analysis of, 55, 56-61, 

107, 136, 137 
Chronology, 138 
Clarendon, Constitutions of, 123 
Concreteness, 120 sqq. 
Contrariant Ideas, 118 

Data of history, 28 
Documents, method of using, 40 
sqq. 
as atmosphere, 96, 104 

Evidence, introduction to treatment 

of, 215 
Examinations, conditions of good, 

171 
Examination papers criticised, 173 

sqq. 
variation of suggested, 182 

Fletcher, C. R. L. , 17 
Form in teaching, need of, 229 
Formal element in history, 117 
Formal training, 33 
FouilUe, A., 27 

Genealogies, treatment of, 143 sqq. 



Hassall, A., 17 
Herbartianism, 39, 113 

Internal evidence, interpretation of, 

Jaeger, Dr. Oscar, 36 

Kant, in 

Laboratory, historical, 93 

Lamprecht, K. , 32 

Langlois, Ch. v. , 32 

Letters, value as evidence, 66, 100 

Libraries, class-room, 219 

Line of time, use of, 132, 140, 141 

Local history, 320 

Locke, 10, no 

Magna Charta, 124 

Marten, C. H. K., 18 

Mayor, A. B., 18 

Method, need of, 227 

Modern reference of history, 215 

Moral training through history, 105 

Mortmain, statute of, 121 

Natorp, P., 115 

Natural science, value of, to indivi- 
dual, 34 
Notebooks, use of, by boys, 134 

Outlines v. Periods, 153 

Personal detail, importance of, 130 
Portraits, value of, 150 



231 



232 



TEACHING OF HISTORY 



Poetry, in the history lesson, 189 
difficulties in the use of, 190 
limited choice of, 192 
by modern writers, 201 
method of using, 204 

Religious legislation, treatment of, 
127 

School subjects, conditions of mani- 
pulation of, 2 
Seignobos, 28, 30, 32 
Sigwart, 35 
Sincerity, criteria of, 31 
Sociology, 26 
Soft options, 22 



Source-books, 40, 94 
composition of, 93 

Special periods, need for emphasis- 
ing, 162 

Statutes, analysis of, 79 

Syllabuses of history, German and 
French, 155 sqq. 

Text-book, use of, 37, 40 

Value of history, 4, 35 
Views on history of — 

Dr. Arnold, 13 

Renaissance writers, 8-12 

Rollin, 13 



THE END 



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